Top Plaintiffs' Verdict: Wuxi Luoshe Printing & Dyeing Co. Ltd. v. Li, $72.5 million

Plaintiff Zhize Huang, a Chinese national, alleged that defendant Anshan Li misappropriated tens of millions of dollars from the ownership and management of a U.S. distributor of textile and bedding products manufactured by Chinese company Wuxi Luoshe.

The challenge for lead plaintiff's counsel Howard Holderness and Mortimer H. Hartwell was to deal with extensive testimony in Chinese and to persuade their Chinese client to trust the U.S. civil justice system. "It was unusual that a Chinese citizen was willing to come to the U.S. and subject himself to the U.S. system," Hartwell said. "A partner in our Beijing office referred the case to us. There was a little hesitation, but our client finally told us he was looking for American justice. He felt this was a wrong American justice could right."

The outcome was the largest verdict to date in favor of a Chinese national.

Because the testimony during the expected 50 court days of trial would be largely in Chinese through translators, Holderness and Hartwell opted for a bench trial. "We figured that if we subjected jurors to all that translation, they'd get angry," Holderness said. "Orrick originally wanted a bench trial too, but when they heard we were asking for the same thing, they switched their view. That may be their best argument on appeal ? a claim they were denied trial by jury."

Holderness added that his side took the position that the case had to be decided under California law, because the defendant was a California company run by a California resident.

Hartwell

The other side claimed that Chinese business practices should be applied by the court," Holderness said. "They wanted to put it in the context of a small mom-and-pop outfit that would suffer a grave injustice if the court imposed fiduciary duties on what was really a minor business transaction in China." San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Marie S. Weiner held otherwise.

A turning point came when a defense witness, the wife of the distributor's chief financial officer, claimed to recall the exact amounts of small withdrawals from a bank account but said she could not remember a $2 million withdrawal. "That exasperated the judge and she started asking questions," Hartwell said. "That was a good day for us."

? John Roemer