Multnomah County Court Judge Tosses Oracle Suit Against Political Consultants

Patricia McCaig
By NIGEL JAQUISS

Multnomah County Court Judge Henry Kantor today threw out a lawsuit today that Oracle America Corp., filed in February against five political consultants—Kevin Looper, Patricia McCaig, Scott Nelson, Tim Raphael and Mark Wiener—who had worked to re-elect former Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2014.

In its lawsuit, Oracle argued that the political consultants convinced Kitzhaber to dump the website Oracle built for Cover Oregon, the state's ill-fated, $300 million health insurance exchange for political reasons, rather than because the website didn't work.

The lawsuit followed reports in WW about the unsual level of involvement McCaig, who was neither a state employee nor a paid or disclosed member of Kitzhaber's campaign staff, had in shaping Kitzhaber's damage control strategy for Cover Oregon.

Judge Kantor did not buy Oracle's argument, he told lawyers for both sides in an email today.

"I have completed my review of all of the materials submitted, along with your oral arguments," Kantor wrote. "I have concluded that the defendants' special motion to strike should be and is granted in its entirety.  A more detailed opinion explaining the grounds for my decision will follow as soon as possible but it could be a few weeks."

Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Looper and Wiener, issued the following statement on behalf of all five of the defendants.

"We are obviously pleased that Judge Kantor has dismissed Oracle’s suit, which we have always believed to be misguided and baseless,” Berman said.

The dismissal, first reported by The Oregonian, does not affect dueling lawsuits the state of Oregon and Oracle filed against each other over who's to blame for Cover Oregon.

A lawyer representing Oracle says the company plans to appeal.

“We fully intend to pursue all avenues to vindicate Oracle’s rights against a group of political operatives who targeted Oracle to help reelect the former Governor, including filing an appeal of this decision and continuing to pursue all the evidence of the defendants’ interference that we’ve been prevented from bringing to light,” said Jamie Gorelick, of the Wilmer Hale law firm in a statement.

WWeek 2015

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