Reported / Citable
Background
Modulus Financial Engineering, Inc. and Modulus Global, Inc. sued NVIDIA Corporation. The parties filed cross-motions addressing summary judgment, including NVIDIA’s separate motions targeting Modulus’s requests for legal damages and equitable relief.
Magistrate Judge Dustin Howell issued orders on three expert challenges and a report and recommendation on the summary-judgment motions. Both sides objected.
The Court’s Holding
Judge Robert Pitman found no clear error or legal error in the magistrate judge’s expert-related orders. The court affirmed the exclusion of Alexandra Clemons’s expert opinion and the dismissal without prejudice, as moot, of the motions concerning Itamar Simonson and Shawn Olds; it denied Modulus’s appeal.
After de novo review of the disputed recommendations, the court overruled both parties’ objections and adopted the report and recommendation. It denied Modulus’s summary-judgment motion, granted NVIDIA summary judgment on Modulus’s request for legal damages, and denied NVIDIA summary judgment on Modulus’s request for equitable relief.
Key Takeaways
- NVIDIA prevailed on summary judgment as to Modulus’s request for legal damages.
- Modulus’s request for equitable relief survived NVIDIA’s summary-judgment motion.
- The court upheld the exclusion of Alexandra Clemons’s expert opinion.
Why It Matters
The order narrows the remedies available to Modulus by eliminating its request for legal damages while leaving its pursuit of equitable relief unresolved. It also confirms that the case will proceed without Clemons’s expert opinion.