PROVO — A 4th District judge has tossed out a $10 billion lawsuit against the founders of Novell and WordPerfect.
In a recent hearing, Judge Lynn Davis called the claims of brothers Bruce Wydner and Roger Weidner, who filed the lawsuit, some of the most bizarre he had seen.
According to his suit, Wydner claims that while working on foreign language software for the Eyring Institute in 1978, the code for his program was stolen by programmers Bruce Bastian and Allen Ashton.
Wydner alleges the two then used the code as the basis for their WordPerfect software. He also says the code was also used to drive missile-defense software, which gave rise to Novell.
Wydner claims he is entitled to $10 billion in damages — his estimate of Novell and WordPerfect earnings since 1978.
In court earlier this month, attorneys for Novell and Bruce Bastian argued that Wydner lacked sufficient evidence to take his case to trial.
Weidner, who claims to be a former criminal prosecutor from Oregon, hailed his brother as "the father of the Internet," and world-renowned as a foreign language specialist, having supposedly worked for the CIA.
"I'm prosecuting Novell, WordPerfect, Bruce Bastian and Allen Ashton for pirating the intellectual property of Bruce Wydner," Weidner said, adding if he were prosecuting such a case he would "have them handcuffed and taken away."
Growing increasingly frustrated, Davis pointed out to Weidner that his claims had nothing to do with civil law or the allegations spelled out in his own suit.
Novell attorney John Mullen said the suit was filed way past the state's statute of limitations, which states a breach of contract claim must be filed within six years of being put on notice.
Wydner claims that he did not know that his software was allegedly pirated until a colleague told him in 1999. But in court Wydner said he had been suspicious for a number of years, including being told by people as far back as 1987 that his software had been used to make WordPerfect and start Novell.
Davis pointed out that by his own admission, Wydner demonstrated that he was aware of a possible breach of contract yet showed that he did nothing to look into the situation.
Based on his findings, Davis ordered the claims of breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud against Novell, WordPerfect, Bastian and Allen dismissed. One additional claim against the Eyring Institute Davis dismissed without prejudice, allowing the brothers to re-file a second suit at a later date.
Wydner, who also claims to have worked as a linguist for the Pentagon, said the computer code he developed was inspired by passages within the Book of Mormon.
Speaking from his home in Oregon, Weidner told the Deseret News that he and his brother were disappointed that the judge did not understand their claims.
Although their claims were dismissed even before it reached a jury, Weidner said he and his brother plan to file yet another suit against the same parties — this time claiming fraud and racketeering.
Novell officials said they are not taking the claims too seriously.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com