The ruling on photographer Chris Usher's case against Corbis for losing a case of 12,640 slides, including images from the 2000 presidential campaign, was upheld in the New York Court of Appeals in April.

After winning $157,000 in damages in 2008 despite Corbis' attempt to show that he was negligent in his slide storage, Usher went to the appeals court claiming the payment was not enough to compensate for the slides he entrusted to the photo company...

In November, a federal court ruled that Corbis Corp. is liable for the loss of over 12,000 images taken by photographer Chris Usher. Usher sued Corbis in 2003 for damages when the agency failed to return all of the images he took on assignment in 2000 to 2001.

Though Usher had no record keeping method, he hired archivist Adrienne DeArmas to conduct a review. Corbis claimed that no more than 5,349 images were lost, but the court sided with DeArmas' calculation of 12,666 images.

In May 2005, a separate ruling had also favored a photographer against Corbis for losing about 40,000 images.

Amid this controversy, Corbis is expected to lay off 125 employees and close several offices...