Epic Systems asks US court to reduce the award it won against TCS by $220 million

MUMBAI: Epic Systems, which won a $940 million verdict against Tata Consultancy Services in a trade secrets case, has asked a US court to reduce the damages awarded to it by $220 million.

Epic's request is a move to bring its award in line with Wisconsin law, which prevents the award of punitive damages of more than twice the amount of the compensatory damages.

In April, a Wisconsin jury awarded the healthcare software firm $240 million in compensatory damages and $700 million in punitive damages, meaning the award fell afoul of the law.

“They have to do this because the award was not in line with the law in Wisconsin. They are just acting like martyrs, but this had to be done," a source with knowledge of TCS’ case against Epic told ET.

In 2011, the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill to cap punitive damages in civil lawsuits at $200,000 or twice the compensatory damages, whichever is greater.

TCS declined to comment on Epic’s request for a reduction in the award. Epic did not immediately respond to ET’s request seeking comment sent outside regular business hours in the United States.

Epic had claimed that TCS employees were brought on as consultants to a Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center in Portland, Ore., to help implement an Epic system there and took more than 6,000 documents containing Epic's system development information by creating a fake user account.

TCS has said it did not misuse or benefit from any of the said information for development of its own hospital management system.

At the company’s annual general body meeting, chairman Cyrus Mistry fielded questions from shareholders on the jury award to Epic, especially why the company had not made a provision for the award.

“In the opinion of the company's legal counsel, the jury award is not binding, and it's currently assessed on the low possibility of the event,” Mistry told shareholders. He reiterated that the company had not misused Epic’s software code.