History (1997): Seagate Will Pay Amstrad £58 Million

It’s an old story, since October 1991: Amstrad PLC, at the time a PC manufacturer, sought $150 million from Seagate and $141 million from Western Digital for 7,000 defective hard disk drives the company bought in 1988, namely the 5.25-inch ST277R and the WD384R models.

The British High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Official Referee’s Court, recently issued its post trial order in the legal action against Seagate, which must pay, failing an appeal, £57.56 million (or about $93 million), not including interest and costs which could increase the award by approximately $60 million.

The suit between WD and Amstrad is scheduled for trial this year in Orange County Superior Court.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 112, published on May 1997.