Semi-Materials Co. Ltd. v. MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. and MEMC Pasadena Inc.

In March of 2011, a federal jury in St. Louis, MO ordered St. Peters, MO based MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR) to pay $19 million to Semi-Materials Co., Ltd., Semi-Materials was represented by the law firms Preti Flaherty of Portland, ME and Menees, Whitney, Burnet & Trog of Clayton, MO during a seven-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis. The seven-person jury rendered its verdict on March 2, 2011 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frederick R. Buckles.



Preti Flaherty filed the lawsuit in 2006 against MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. and MEMC Pasadena, Inc., both U.S. manufacturers of polysilicon, for breach of sales agreements. The team of Preti Flaherty attorneys included lead trial attorney Greg Hansel, along with Randall B. Weill, Joshua R. Carver, Megan A. Sanders, Adam T. Rick and paralegal Julie DeFrancesco. Attorney Hardy Menees of St. Louis, MO served as Missouri trial counsel. MEMC was represented by Bryan Cave, a global law firm headquartered in St. Louis, MO.



This complex breach of contract claim was decided under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, an international treaty on commercial transactions that has been adopted by Congress into U.S. law.



Preti Flaherty successfully proved that MEMC had breached three contracts to sell initial shipments of goods at a high price and later shipments at a low price. The high-low contracts between MEMC and Semi-Materials were the subject of an audit of MEMC's filings with the SEC. The auditors, KPMG, forced MEMC to restate its earnings in amended SEC filings.



Semi-Materials Co., Ltd is a Korean supplier of solar energy products based in Seoul, Korea with a U.S. facility located in San Jose, CA. Learn more about Semi-Materials at http://www.semimaterials.com.

Jury verdict for Plaintiff: $19,042,000.

Patricia L. Pacey, PhD, Boulder, CO, economics; John Berg, Silicon Valley, CA, polysilicon industry.

Donald Mitchell, CPA, accounting.