Idaho Supreme Court Hears Micron Price-fixing Case

"Before you decide to skip the important step of making demand (to the board) you need to know why it will be futile," Kaplan told the justices. "Instead, plaintiff here has skipped all of that process and comes here and says, 'I don't know, and nobody knows, but this is my supposition of what happened.' That's a silly assumption."

Orrock claims that at least as early as 2000, board members consciously ignored warnings that would have alerted them to Micron's role in the price-fixing conspiracy. Even after the company was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury, Orrock contends, the board failed to take the wrongdoers out of their positions with the company or seek any redress for the millions of dollars the scheme cost Micron.

Kaplan said the board fully cooperated with the Justice Department, mitigating any damages to the company, and that Orrock's lawsuit contains nothing to show the board did not act in good faith.

The Supreme Court took the matter under advisement and could issue its ruling before the end of the year.

Besides Appleton, six current and former board members are named in the lawsuit: James Bagley, Robert Lothrop, Gordon C. Smith, William P. Weber, Thomas T. Nicholson and Don J. Simplot. Wilber Stover Jr., the former CFO and vice president of finance, and Michael Sadler, former vice president of worldwide sales, also are named as defendants. Sadler is now the executive vice president of Inotera Memories Inc., a joint venture of Micron and Nanya Technology Corp. of Taiwan.