Trials and Tribulations
If it all went perfectly it would be boring. That’s what someone said to me once and I can’t thank them enough. This little phrase has gotten me through this next chapter.
Lets start with the long awaited trial with JA. Just like on TV this two year long battle has gone all the way to a trial, complete with expert witnesses, cross examination and objections galore. During a pandemic it happened in a little different way via Zoom. The judge and bailiff were in the court room. My attorney was in her office with paralegals. I was at home comfortable on my couch with my dogs at my side. My attorney wanted me in her office but I knew I would have a much easier time staying focused and on topic from home. Plus, no offense, I would want to clean her office if I was there.
JA, his fancy attorney and their paralegal were in the office of the fancy attorney. Their set up was good for covid reasons but pretentious I thought. Large burled wood conference table. JA and the paralegal at one far end. Attorney was behind plexiglass at the head of the table with all the notebooks and papers. Their opening and closing statements were complete with power point presentations. Gag!
Opening statements couldn’t have laid out more opposite story lines. Ours was consistent with all of our claims and reports over the last two years. Theirs was laughable in that their timeline on the fancy power point presentation wasn’t factually correct in many ways.
The trial was estimated to last 2–3 days…..it went on for 5 days. Mostly because JA’s attorney objected every five seconds. Each objection requires an argument between attorneys and then the judges ruling. The other factor was that JA couldn’t just answer the question. He went on and on with long stories for almost every question. Even the judge asked him multiple times to simply answer the question and then wait for the next question.
During these 5 days it went just like the deposition, lie after lie. The nice part about trial was I had the opportunity real time to prove without a doubt that they are lies. First up, JA stuck to his deposition claim that I wrote the contract. Totally feasible, I just sat down with my coffee on the morning of December 29th 2016 and wrote 12 pages of engineering terminology and acronyms. Totally feasible that an esthetician wrote this document as opposed to the person with a masters in electrical and mechanical engineering. JA basically copied my claim but tweaked it to fit his lie. He said that I handed him the contract on December 15th 2016 and then I emailed it to him on December 29th 2016. He then edited the emailed copy, signed it and sent it back to me. The trouble with his story aside from the fact that it’s just not feasible that I wrote it is that Microsoft Word dates and time stamps when a document was created and you can’t alter that. It was created on December 29th 2016….so is he saying I gave him a hand written copy 2 weeks before?
Next lie was that I approved the entire prototype in March 2017. My device has 3 major things that make it different than any other wax pot on the market. Silicone Skin / Mobile App / Appealing Shape. Two of those things didn’t even exist until 2018. The mobile app didn’t exist in a way that I could see and test it myself until 2018. JA confirmed to me twice in writing that he could not make a silicone skin with the 3D printer. This was why I ended up paying to create the molds so I could get the exterior plastic parts in a final prototype that’s not possible with a 3D printer. The molds also made it possible for me to see feel and try a silicone skin for the first time. The molds weren’t created until 2018. So obviously it is impossible that I FULLY approved anything in 2017 because there wasn’t a FULL thing to approve.
Next lie was that I approved production. When I approved funding for tooling there were three things that I did to make it very clear that I am authorizing something. One I sent a separate email free of any other discussion and not via text to get buried. Two I clearly stated ‘please accept this as my authorization to fund tooling’ so it is idiot proof that I am funding specifically tooling nothing else. Three I CC’d James in China who was the recipient of the funds. There is nothing like this from me for production. To those of you following along, Tooling aka Molds are the big metal parts that make mass quantities or samples of parts aka production. Two different things.
JA throws up a piece of evidence that has never been presented before in the two years we’ve been battling. This evidence is clearly fake. It’s allegedly a text from me to him saying two things. One ‘is production happening?’ and two ‘and the electronics too?’. Here are all the things I found instantly wrong with this. It is a PDF not a screen shot. The bubbles identifying who it is label me as WM where as all other screen shots submitted were my face and AB. This message that he said is me authorizing production is not an instruction or authorization at all….at best it is a question. The clincher that I enjoyed providing the court was that my history does not match. There was a text on the day his fake evidence showed, but not what he claims. If I sent that, then my history must match and it doesn’t.
Prior to me and JA testifying my expert witnesses testified. Both of them with excellent education and decades of experience laid out a product development process in stages. Both of them laid out the same process and it also matched the handy dandy power point slide in the defenses opening statement. JA’s testimony laid out a completely incoherent product development process that didn’t match anyone else’s including his own attorney. His process put the safety certification aka UL or ETL somewhere after mass production. Clearly that doesn’t make any sense to anyone. Why would you mass produce a product that might be required to change everything about it to pass UL or ETL? You wouldn’t that’s the answer, but JA said this production is for friends and family. I’m pretty sure I didn’t want 1000 wax pots for my friends and family that don’t know how to wax……..
JA’s attorney broke the cardinal rule many times with questioning me. Never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to. He asked me why I think JA didn’t deliver the two molds that I questioned their existence. My answer was that he’d have to ask his client but in my opinion it would be pretty hard to deliver something that doesn’t exist. He asked me why I’m saying he didn’t give me a Complete BOM (Bill of Materials). He put on the shared screen a BOM and claimed here it is, it was sent to you years ago. My answer was that the BOM he is showing is incomplete and only represents 2 out of 28 parts of the device. The reason it’s incomplete is that many of the supplier fields are “disabled” and the place where it should show who the manufacturer is, is left blank. The manufacturer, vendor information for all 28 parts would be a Complete BOM. JA’s attorney wasn’t sure how to respond to that one.
All damages roads lead back to this missing Complete BOM that JA has never supplied to me still to this day. That is listed in four different ways in our contract and is a clear breach. JA claimed he couldn’t supply it until Stage 4. Well that’s funny, our contract only has 2 stages and the BOM is in Stage 1. My answer to this claim was simple. He had boxes of Materials….where is the Bill that goes with them. Boom!
The judge at the end asked JA some questions directly. She asked him what certain line items in the contract mean. Some of the line items she was asking about referenced ‘Document’. If JA was smart he would say he didn’t know what it meant since I wrote the contract. But dumb dumb JA went on in great detail what each line items means. When asked if he provided a document as it referenced, JA said no he didn’t supply me a document.
At the end of the trial the closing arguments were just like the opening, completely different stories. Our story still consistent and theirs once again changed…it changes day by day and hour to hour. My attorney did a stellar job and was very strategic all the way to the end. I was thoroughly impressed by her. She said she loves doing trials and I see why, she’s very good at it. The judge will deliver her ruling in the next week and I’m on the edge of my seat feeling very good about how it went and getting the outcome I want.
Meanwhile my product hangs in the balance still. I’ve worked through my panic and despair and am determined to find a way through this bump in the road. I believe China will honor their work and either pay or help pay for the recall/repairs that are needed with this inventory. Either way I am already planning what to do. I want the inventory packed up and shipped to the company that referred me to my wonderful new engineer. That company is in Renton WA. I figure if I’m moving the inventory to WA I might as well keep it here in WA. Shopping around for a new fulfillment center.
