- Ira Kleiman’s legal team have demanded a new trial after Craig Wright’s team “violated” a court order
- Kleiman’s team say that the subject of the brothers’ relationship was barred, but that they still played on it
- A jury member has since said that the relationship impacted how they viewed the case
The counsel for Ira Kleiman, the brother of Craig Wright’s deceased business partner Dave Kleiman, has sensationally demanded a new trial between Kleiman and Wright after claiming that the defense violated a court order during the proceedings. Kleiman’s legal team claims that the court had ordered pre-trial that almost all evidence pointing to the relationship between the Kleiman brothers was not allowed at trial, yet the defense allegedly played on this relationship to prove its points that Ira was attempting a money grab and had no right to anything Dave may still control. Wright was adjudged to have unfairly obtained intellectual property from W&K Info Defense, the company Wright and Kleiman fronted, and was ordered to pay $100 million in damages as a result.
Wright’s Team “Repeatedly” Violated Court Order
Ira Kleiman’s counsel filed its demand for a new trial yesterday, claiming that Wright’s legal team used evidence on a subject that the judge had barred pre-trial to push home a point about the relationship between the Kleiman brothers:
In preparing for trial, the Estate anticipated Defendant would try to inject Ira Kleiman’s relationship with his brother David Kleiman into the trial as an attempt to persuade the jury that the Estate should not recover because Ira Kleiman (the Estate’s personal representative and beneficiary) was somehow undeserving.
The Court, after full briefing, excluded evidence about the brothers’ relationship except as to dinner conversations on Thanksgiving Day 2009 […] Defendant tried to evade the Court’s ruling throughout trial and when that failed, simply violated it. Repeatedly.
Kleiman Claim is Long Shot
As an interview with one of the jurors by court reporter Carolina Bolado points out, the relationship between the brothers did have an impact on how they saw Ira’s claim, something that his counsel has clearly taken umbrage too. Kleiman’s team raised objections at the time but these were overruled and a sidebar on the matter was denied, so it will be up to Judge Bloom to admit if she acted improperly at the time. Alternatively, an appeals judge may rule on the matter, offering a more objective point of view.
New trials are rarely granted unless there has been a serious breach somewhere along the line, and only time will tell if this breach was serious enough to warrant such action.
