Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-5_13-cv-03384/USCOURTS-cand-5_13-cv-03384-9/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 190
Nature of Suit: Other Contract Actions
Cause of Action: 28:1332 Diversity-Other Contract

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Case No. 5:13-cv-03384-PSG 

AMENDED PRELIMINARY JURY INSTRUCTIONS 

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United States District Court 

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 

SAN JOSE DIVISION 

VENTURE CORPORATION LTD., et al., 

 Plaintiffs and 

Counterdefendants, 

 v. 

JAMES P. BARRETT, 

 Defendant and 

Counterclaimant. 

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Case No. 5:13-cv-03384-PSG

AMENDED PRELIMINARY JURY 

INSTRUCTIONS 

 

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1. DUTY OF JURY 

Ladies and gentlemen: You are now the jury in this case. It is my duty to instruct you on the law. 

These instructions are preliminary instructions to help you understand the principles that apply to 

civil trials and to help you understand the evidence as you listen to it. You will be allowed to keep 

this set throughout the trial to which to refer. This set of instructions is not to be taken home and 

must remain in the jury room when you leave in the evenings. At the end of the trial, I will give 

you a final set of instructions. It is the final set of instructions which will govern your 

deliberations. 

You must not infer from these instructions or from anything I may say or do as indicating that I 

have an opinion regarding the evidence or what your verdict should be. 

It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case. To those facts you will apply the 

law as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree with it or 

not. And you must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, or 

sympathy. That means that you must decide the case solely on the evidence before you. You will 

recall that you took an oath to do so. 

In following my instructions, you must follow all of them and not single out some and ignore 

others; they are all important. 

 

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2. BACKGROUND 

This is a lawsuit between Venture Corporation Ltd (“VCL”) and Venture Design Services, Inc. 

(“VDSI”), on the one hand, and James P. Barrett, on the other hand. VCL is a Singaporean 

company. VDSI is a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of VCL with its headquarters in California. 

Mr. Barrett was an employee of VDSI and he is the named inventor on three patents. Mr. Barrett 

became a VDSI employee on November 1, 2003. On June 28, 2003—before his employment with 

VDSI commenced—Mr. Barrett signed an Employee Confidential Information and Inventions 

Agreement (or simply the “inventions agreement”). Mr. Barrett worked for VDSI from November 

1, 2003 through March 20, 2013. 

At some point during his employment, Mr. Barrett proposed an invention or inventions. The 

invention or inventions became known as MineTracer and the Refuge Life Support system. 

MineTracer is a wireless system for tracking the location of miners in mine shafts and tunnels. The 

Refuge Life Support system has two components: a gas monitor for sensing abnormal levels of 

harmful gasses in a mine, and a gas scrubber, which can filter carbon dioxide in a mine. 

VCL and VDSI, on the one hand, and Mr. Barrett, on the other hand, dispute when and how the 

inventions came to exist and how VCL obtained ownership rights of the patents. 

VCL and VDSI seek declaratory judgment that VCL is the owner of the rights of the patents. VCL 

and VDSI deny the existence of any joint venture between Mr. Barrett and VCL. VCL and VDSI 

further contend that Mr. Barrett’s claims are barred by their limitation periods. 

Mr. Barrett has countersued VCL, claiming fraud, breach of contracts, repudiation of the joint venture 

and breach of VCL’s implied duty of good faith and fair dealing. Mr. Barrett further contends that 

VCL and VDSI’s claims are barred by their limitation periods. 

 

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3. WHAT IS EVIDENCE 

The evidence you are to consider in deciding what the facts are consists of: 

1. The sworn testimony of any witness; 

2. The exhibits which are received into evidence; and 

3. Any facts to which the lawyers have agreed. 

 

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4. WHAT IS NOT EVIDENCE 

In reaching your verdict, you may consider only the testimony and exhibits received into evidence. 

Certain things are not evidence, and you may not consider them in deciding what the facts are. 

I will list them for you: 

(1) Arguments and statements by lawyers are not evidence. The lawyers are not witnesses. 

What they have said in their opening statements, will say in their closing arguments, and at 

other times is intended to help you interpret the evidence, but it is not evidence. If the facts 

as you remember them differ from the way the lawyers have stated them, your memory of 

them controls. 

(2) Questions and objections by lawyers are not evidence. Attorneys have a duty to their 

clients to object when they believe a question is improper under the rules of evidence. You 

should not be influenced by the objection or by the court’s ruling on it. 

(3) Testimony that has been excluded or stricken, or that you have been instructed to disregard, 

is not evidence and must not be considered. In addition sometimes testimony and exhibits 

are received only for a limited purpose; when I give a limiting instruction, you must follow 

it. 

(4) Anything you may have seen or heard when the court was not in session is not evidence. 

You are to decide the case solely on the evidence received at the trial. 

 

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5. DIRECT AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE 

Evidence may be direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is direct proof of a fact, such as 

testimony by a witness about what that witness personally saw or heard or did. Circumstantial 

evidence is proof of one or more facts from which you could find another fact. You should 

consider both kinds of evidence. The law makes no distinction between the weight to be given to 

either direct or circumstantial evidence. It is for you to decide how much weight to give to any 

evidence. 

By way of example, if you wake up in the morning and see that the sidewalk is wet, you may find 

from that fact that it rained during the night. However, other evidence, such as a turned on garden 

hose, may provide a different explanation for the presence of water on the sidewalk. Therefore, 

before you decide that a fact has been proved by circumstantial evidence, you must consider all the 

evidence in the light of reason, experience and common sense. 

 

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6. RULING ON OBJECTIONS 

What are rules of evidence that control what can be received into evidence? When a lawyer asks a 

question or offers an exhibit into evidence and a lawyer on the other side thinks that it is not 

permitted by the rules of evidence, that lawyer may object. If I overrule the objection, the question 

may be answered or the exhibit received. If I sustain the objection, the question cannot be 

answered, and the exhibit cannot be received. Whenever I sustain an objection to a question, you 

must ignore the question and must not guess what the answer might have been. 

Sometimes I may order that evidence be stricken from the record and that you disregard or ignore 

the evidence. That means that when you are deciding the case, you must not consider the evidence 

that I told you to disregard. 

 

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7. CREDIBILITY OF WITNESSES 

In deciding the facts in this case, you may have to decide which testimony to believe and which 

testimony not to believe. You may believe everything a witness says, or part of it, or none of it. 

Proof of a fact does not necessarily depend on the number of witnesses who testify about it. 

In considering the testimony of any witness, you may take into account: 

(1) The opportunity and ability of the witness to see or hear or know the things testified to; 

(2) The witness’s memory; 

(3) The witness’s manner while testifying; 

(4) The witness’s interest in the outcome of the case and any bias or prejudice; 

(5) Whether other evidence contradicted the witness’s testimony; 

(6) The reasonableness of the witness’s testimony in light of all the evidence; and 

(7) Any other factors that bear on believability. 

The weight of the evidence as to a fact does not necessarily depend on the number of witnesses 

who testify about it. 

 

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8. CONDUCT OF THE JURY 

I will now say a few words about your conduct as jurors. 

First, keep an open mind throughout the trial, and do not decide what the verdict should be until 

you and your fellow jurors have completed your deliberations at the end of the case. 

Second, because you must decide this case based only on the evidence received in the case and on 

my instructions as to the law that applies, you must not be exposed to any other information about 

the case or to the issues it involves during the course of your jury duty. Thus, until the end of the 

case or unless I tell you otherwise: 

Do not communicate with anyone in any way and do not let anyone else communicate with you in 

any way about the merits of the case or anything to do with it. This includes discussing the case in 

person, in writing, by phone or electronic means, via e-mail, text messaging, or any Internet chat 

room, blog, Web site or other feature. This applies to communicating with your fellow jurors until 

I give you the case for deliberation, and it applies to communicating with everyone else including 

your family members, your employer, the media or press, and the people involved in the trial, 

although you may notify your family and your employer that you have been seated as a juror in the 

case. 

But, if you are asked or approached in any way about your jury service or anything about this case, 

you must respond that you have been ordered not to discuss the matter and to report the contact to 

the court. 

Because you will receive all the evidence and legal instruction you properly may consider to return 

a verdict: do not read, watch, or listen to any news or media accounts or commentary about the 

case or anything to do with it; do not do any research, such as consulting dictionaries, searching the 

Internet or using other reference materials; and do not make any investigation or in any other way 

try to learn about the case on your own. 

The law requires these restrictions to ensure the parties have a fair trial based on the same evidence 

that each party has had an opportunity to address. A juror who violates these restrictions 

jeopardizes the fairness of these proceedings, and a mistrial could result that would require the 

entire trial process to start over. If any juror is exposed to any outside information, please notify 

the court immediately. 

 

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9. NO TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE TO JURY 

During deliberations, you will have to make your decision based on what you recall of the 

evidence. You will not have a transcript of the trial. I urge you to pay close attention to the 

testimony as it is given. 

If at any time you cannot hear or see the testimony, evidence, questions or arguments, let me know 

so that I can correct the problem. 

 

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10. TAKING NOTES 

If you wish, you may take notes to help you remember the evidence. If you do take notes, please 

keep them to yourself until you and your fellow jurors go to the jury room to decide the case. Do 

not let note-taking distract you. When you leave, your notes should be left in the jury room. No 

one will read your notes. They will be destroyed at the conclusion of the case. 

Whether or not you take notes, you should rely on your own memory of the evidence. Notes are 

only to assist your memory. You should not be overly influenced by your notes or those of your 

fellow jurors. 

 

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11. QUESTIONS TO WITNESSES BY JURORS 

You will be allowed to propose written questions to witnesses after the lawyers have completed 

their questioning of each witness. You may propose questions in order to clarify the testimony, but 

you are not to express any opinion about the testimony or argue with a witness. If you propose any 

questions, remember that your role is that of a neutral fact finder, not an advocate. 

Before I excuse each witness, I will offer you the opportunity to write out a question on a form 

provided by the court. Do not sign the question. I will review the question with the attorneys to 

determine if it is legally proper. 

There are some proposed questions that I will not permit, or will not ask in the wording submitted 

by the juror. This might happen either due to the rules of evidence or other legal reasons, or 

because the question is expected to be answered later in the case. If I do not ask a proposed 

question, or if I rephrase it, do not speculate as to the reasons. Do not give undue weight to 

questions you or other jurors propose. You should evaluate the answers to those questions in the 

same manner you evaluate all of the other evidence. 

By giving you the opportunity to propose questions, I am not requesting or suggesting that you do 

so. It will often be the case that a lawyer has not asked a question because it is legally 

objectionable or because a later witness may be addressing that subject. 

 

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12. BENCH CONFERENCES AND RECESSES 

From time to time during the trial, it may become necessary for me to talk with the attorneys out of 

the hearing of the jury, either by having a conference at the bench when the jury is present in the 

courtroom, or by calling a recess. Please understand that while you are waiting, we are working. 

The purpose of these conferences is not to keep relevant information from you, but to decide how 

certain evidence is to be treated under the rules of evidence and to avoid confusion and error. 

Of course, we will do what we can to keep the number and length of these conferences to a 

minimum. I may not always grant an attorney’s request for a conference. Do not consider my 

granting or denying a request for a conference as any indication of my opinion of the case or of 

what your verdict should be. 

 

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13. OUTLINE OF TRIAL 

The trial will now begin. First, each side may make an opening statement. An opening statement 

is not evidence. It is simply an outline to help you understand what that party expects the evidence 

will show. 

The presentation of evidence will then begin. Witnesses will take the witness stand and the 

documents will be offered and admitted into evidence. 

The Plaintiffs and Counterdefendants will present evidence supporting their claims. The Plaintiffs 

and Counterdefendants’ witnesses will be questioned by the Plaintiffs and Counterdefendants’ 

counsel in what is called direct examination. After the direct examination of a witness is 

completed, the opposing side has an opportunity to cross-examine the witness. 

After the Plaintiffs and Counterdefendants have presented their witnesses, the Defendant and 

Counterclaimant will call his witnesses, who will also be examined and cross-examined. The 

Defendant and Counterclaimant will put on evidence responding to the Plaintiffs and 

Counterdefendants’ claims. 

Because the evidence is introduced piecemeal, you need to keep an open mind as the evidence 

comes in and wait for all the evidence before you make any decisions. In other words, you should 

keep an open mind throughout the entire trial. 

The parties may present the testimony of a witness by reading from his or their deposition 

transcript or playing a videotape of the witness’s deposition testimony. A deposition is the sworn 

testimony of a witness taken before trial and is entitled to the same consideration as if the witness 

had testified at trial. 

After the evidence has been presented, I will give you final instructions on the law that applies to 

the case and the attorneys will make closing arguments. Closing arguments are not evidence. 

After the instructions and closing arguments, you will then decide the case. 

SO ORDERED.

Dated: May 26, 2015 

 _________________________________ 

 PAUL S. GREWAL 

 United States Magistrate Judge 

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