Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, DC -- A big class-action lawsuit against computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard will go ahead after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the company's appeal.
The USSC announced Tuesday it would not intervene in a 2005 ruling by the District Court of Cleveland County, Okla., that HP opposed. That court allowed a suit brought by a local couple against HP acquisition Compaq to combine with others across the country.
The lawsuits all charge that Compaq computers were sold with defective floppy-disk drives that weren't replaced, causing corruption and loss of data. Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq in 2002 and the original Oklahoma suit was filed in 2003, IDG News Service reported.
HP had used a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court in 2005 that refused to allow a nationwide class-action suit in a case filed in Texas in 2000 to support its case for appeal, IDG News noted. The company argued that the facts were similar in the Oklahoma case.
The nationwide class-action suit against HP will now return to an Oklahoma state court.