In re: Intel corp. Microprocessor Antitrust Litigation, MDL 05-1717, No. 05-485 (D. Del. June 26, 2006), 2006 WL 1755948

CAFA – It just adds up!  In a Kansas antitrust class action claiming Intel overcharged for its microprocessors, Intel removed the case to federal court based upon CAFA jurisdiction.  Intel argued that more than $5 million was in controversy because the applicable Kansas law allowed the consumer to recover the entire purchase price of the computer. In their motion to remand, the plaintiffs countered that the amount in controversy was only the value of the microprocessors themselves, not the entire computer.  Judge Farnan gave the parties a quick review of one of the three Rs that every school student remembers:  rithmetic.

In some math wizardry, the Court noted that the “parties agree that 930,768 personal computers were sold in Kansas,” that “80% of them, or 744,614, contained Intel x86 microprocessors,” that 5.52% of the total population of Kansas lived in the class area and “the court calculates that 41,103 computers containing Intel x86 microprocessors” were sold in the class area.  Continuing the math lesson, the Court determined that in order to meet the $5 million jurisdictional limit, the price of the microprocessor would have to have been “less than $40.55”, an implausibly low number. Since the Court was convinced the amount in controversy was satisfied, the Court retained jurisdiction.  I guess our math teachers were right when they said we would use that stuff some day.