Samuel Alba

Samuel Alba (born 1947) is a former United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Utah.

Early life and education

Alba was born in 1947.

Alba graduated from Utah State University in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in political science. He graduated from the Arizona State University College of Law in 1972.

On October 8, 1980, Alba was admitted to the Utah State Bar. In 2009, following a plea agreement, Alba sentenced two men, Rulon Kody Sommerville and Kevin Shumway, to a year of probation in a case in which some two dozen people from San Juan County were charged with stealing ancient artifacts from federal lands. In 2010, Alba approved a plea deal in the high-profile Bugman Pest and Lawn case, in which the fumigation company and its ex-employee Coleman Nocks faced federal charges of unlawful use of a registered pesticide that was connected to the deaths of two young girls in Layton, Utah. After accepting the plea deal, the case went to U.S. District Judge Dee Benson. In 2010, Alba presided over Phillips Electrical v. BC Technical case, involving claims of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and misappropriation of trade secrets, among others. After an evidentiary hearing, Alba issued a 117-page report and recommendation on the discovery, finding that defendant had intentionally destroyed evidence, recommending that the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's complaint be stricken and default entered against the defendant, and ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff's attorney fees in the sum of $294,694. Alba's report and recommendation was adopted in its entirety by Judge Clark Waddoups in February 2011.

On 2005, the Utah Minority Bar Association honored Alba as one of the first 50 minority lawyers in Utah. In 2010, Alba delivered a speech entitled "The Changing Face of Law in Latin America" as part of Utah State University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences Distinguished Alumni Speaker series.

Personal life Alba was married to Nancy Alba until she died from breast cancer in 1992. Alba later married Anne Swensen. He has four children and eight grandchildren.