The last waters in the Winklevoss twins -Mark Zuckerburg legal battle have not yet been rowed. As ZDnet says , “In a filing earlier this week with the federal court in San Francisco, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s former Harvard classmates Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, who accuse him of stealing their idea for the social network, decided not to seek US Supreme Court review of the $65 million settlement made in 2008. Everyone thought this meant they had finally given up. It turns out that the twins have decided to keep fighting after all, just with a different lawsuit.”
The new case, filed in Boston, suggests that Facebook and Zuckerberg “intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence” in the recently-settled lawsuit.
A New York Times report, elaborates on the new case, “Now, they are pursuing a different legal path, claiming in the Massachusetts court that as the two parties engaged in settlement discussions, Facebook withheld instant messages dating back to 2004 that purportedly show Zuckerberg plotting to steal the idea the Winklevosses and Mr. Divya Narendra had for a social network. The instant messages, which have surfaced in blogs and in a New York article, show Mr. Zuckerberg using an expletive to tell a friend he was planning to deceive the Winklevoss twins. In another message,obtained by the blog Business Insider, Mr. Zuckerberg refers to a Web site that the Winklevosses had asked him to help with: “Someone is already trying to make a dating site. But they made a mistake haha. They asked me to make it for them. So I’m like delaying it so it won’t be ready until after the facebook thing comes out.”
The instant messages in question were discovered by Facebook’s legal team when it searched Zuckerburg’s computer. The trio is asking the Boston Federal Court to look into claims that Facebook and its lawyers hid instant messages from the during litigation. The argument is that Facebook should have disclosed those communications when the original settlement was put together.
Zdnet gave a provided the background to the present case, “The Winklevoss twins and Narendra started a company called ConnectU while at Harvard. They say Zuckerberg stole their idea and created Facebook, an allegation the company vehemently denies. The trio originally agreed to the aforementioned settlement in 2008, but ever since it has been trying to argue that, based on an internal valuation that Facebook did not reveal, it should have received more Facebook shares as part of the deal. In other words, the group wants more than $65 million.
A lower court previously granted Facebook’s request to enforce the settlement with the Winklevoss twins and Narendra. Two months ago, a three-judge appeals court panel agreed and ruled that the Winklevoss twins must accept the cash – $20 million and stock settlement – $45 million with Facebook.
ZDnet says the suit faces an uphill battle. Courts have already said the twins have to stick to their settlement. Now, ZDnet reports: “Not only do they now have to prove that Facebook violated discovery procedures, but they also still have to persuade the courts to overturn the settlement. That’s going to be really difficult given how many times the group has been told to just take the $65 million already.”