Wiz Technology, Inc. v. COOPERS & LYBRAND LLP

Appellant Wiz Technology, Inc. (Wiz), alleged various tort and contract causes' of action against its auditor, respondent Coopers & Lybrand LLP (Coopers), for Coopers’s purported improper resignation prior to completion of the 1996 audit and Coopers’s refusal to permit Wiz to use the 1995 audit report to support its planned secondary securities offering. We find that summary judgment was properly granted in favor of Coopers for the following reasons: Coopers’s resignation was justified by Wiz’s breach of a material condition that required it to hire different counsel for securities matters; all claims relating to the 1995 audit report were time-barred; and, in any event, Wiz failed to produce any competent, nonspeculative evidence of proximate causation and damages. Moreover, the trial court did not err in denying Wiz’s motion for reconsideration.

Factual and Procedural Summary

Wiz was a publicly traded company that developed and marketed inexpensive computer software games and educational programs for sale at various shops and discount stores. Wiz first offered its securities on public stock markets in February of 1994.

Coopers’s 1995 audit report for Wiz

The…