Earlier this year, Charles Joyce and James Voigt sued Pepsi and tow of its distributors in a state court in Wisconsin. Their claim was that PepsiCo stole trade secrets from some of the plaintiff’s confidential discussions in 1981 about selling bottled water. They claimed that Pepsi took that information and developed Aquafina.

PepsiCo’s lawyers said that they did not receive notice of the lawsuit until September, the case was in April. The judge in the case had no other option but to enter a default judgment. Due to Pepsi’s lawyers’ silence, a damages award was given that totaled $1.26 billion as of September 30.

Of course, Pepsi’s lawyers filed motions to vacate the order on October 13, because they said that they didn’t get the lawsuit until October 6th.

In court papers, PepsiCo claims it first received paperwork from North Carolina agent on Sept. 15 when a copy of a co-defendant’s letter was forwarded to Deputy General Counsel Tom Tamoney in PepsiCo’s law department. Tamoney’s secretary put the letter aside and didn’t tell anyone about it because she was “so busy preparing for a board meeting,” PepsiCo said in its Oct. 13 motion to vacate.

Another breakdown, according to the AmLaw story: Lawyers for PepsiCo distributors Wis-Pak Inc. and Carolina Canners Inc. made court appearances in June and July. PepsiCo was at a loss to explain why it hadn’t heard about the case from them. “It’s just another unfortunate thing that didn’t come together,” PepsiCo spokesman Joe  Jacuzzi said.

In seeking to dismiss the case, PepsiCo argues that the statute of limitations should preclude the lawsuit. Furthermore, “the $1.26 billion judgment that has been entered is unprecedented in size and justice requires that PepsiCo have a chance to defend itself,” the company said.

While it is unlikely that the judge will vacate the order in the state, but perhaps the judgment can be reduced from the annoying-ly high $1.26 billion judgment.

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