Flyspeckin'

Hyperphase Technologies, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp, No. 02-C-647-C (W.D. Wis. July 1, 2003)

Court rules permit electronic documents to be e-filed until midnight on the due date. Microsoft electronically filed a motion at 12:04:27 AM (4 minutes and 27 seconds late). The opposing party Hyperphase Technologies, Inc. filed a motion to strike the motion as untimely. The court entered the following order:

"In a scandalous affront to this court's deadlines, Microsoft did not file its summary judgment motion until 12:04:27 a.m .... I don't know this personally because I was home sleeping, but that's what the court's computer docketing program says, so I'll accept it as true.

"Microsoft's insouciance so flustered Hyperphase that nine of its attorneys [names omitted] promptly filed a motion to strike .... Counsel used bolded italics to make their point, a clear sign of grievous inequity by one's foe. True, this court did enter an order ... ordering the parties not to flyspeck each other, but how could such an order apply to a motion filed almost five minutes later? Microsoft's temerity was nothing short of a frontal assault on the precept of punctuality so cherished by and vital to this court.

"Wounded though this court may be by Microsoft's four minute and twenty-seven second dereliction in duty, it will transcend the affront and forgive the tardiness. Indeed, to demonstrate the evenhandedness of its magnanimity, the court will allow Hyperphase on some future occasion in this case to efile a motion four minutes and thirty seconds late ...."