Spoliation is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of corporate legal professionals.
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Results for: Case Law
No reasonable anticipation of litigation given longstanding relationship and lack of communication about incident
Philmar Dairy, LLC v. Armstrong Farms No. 18-cv-0530SMV/KRS (D.N.M. July 11, 2019)In this breach of contract case, the court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions, finding that the defendants were under no duty to preserve evidence at the time of its loss. The...
Preserved 91-minute video sufficient to capture ‘horrific storm’
Incardone v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. No. 16-20924-CIV-MARTINEZ/GOODMAN (S.D. Fla. Aug. 12, 2019)In this claim for injuries sustained during a boat cruise, the court began its opinion by noting that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Given that, “surely a...
Defendants deleted evidence before and after legal hold, then misrepresented its availability
In this employment case, the magistrate imposed monetary sanctions and recommended an adverse inference jury instruction for the defendants’ spoliation of electronically stored information (ESI). Although the defendants were on notice of the plaintiff’s claims and had a clear obligation to preserve relevant information, they intentionally deleted her email and work data…
Defendant failed to establish that unpreserved evidence was irretrievably lost
Envy Hawaii LLC v. Volvo Car USA LLC No. 17-00040 HG-RT (D. Haw. Mar. 20, 2019)In this contract dispute, the court denied the defendant’s motion for spoliation sanctions, finding that it had not conclusively established that the evidence in question was, in fact,...
Appellate court reverses exclusion of evidence about spoliation, remands
GN Netcom, Inc. v. Plantronics, Inc. No. 18-1287 (3d Cir. July 10, 2019) We’ve previously written about GN Netcom, Inc. v. Plantronics, Inc. — a long-running antitrust matter involving egregious spoliation of emails — but the saga isn’t over yet. In this recent...
Two defendants admitted to having ‘wiped and discarded’ their phones without preserving text messages
Paisley Park Enters., Inc. v. Boxill No. 17-cv-1212 (WMW/TNL) (D. Minn. Mar. 4, 2019) In this case involving the alleged infringement of music created by the late artist Prince, the court granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions based on the defendants’...
Court glances past issue of lost passwords for protected documents
Equal Emp’t Opportunity Comm’n v. Performance Food Grp. No. CCB-13-1712 (D. Md. Mar. 6, 2019) In this employment discrimination case, the court denied the plaintiff’s motions for sanctions involving both paper records and ESI. It found that the plaintiff failed to...
![Party ‘repeatedly and consistently [took] knowing and intentional action to destroy evidence’](https://zapproved.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CL319_CaseLaw_Ennis-FlintvGreer-400x250.png)
Party ‘repeatedly and consistently [took] knowing and intentional action to destroy evidence’
Ennis-Flint, Inc. v. Greer No. 18-CVS-3612, 2019 NCBC 11 (N.C. Business Court Feb. 4, 2019) In this case alleging breach of contract and trade secret theft, the North Carolina Business Court granted the plaintiff a preliminary injunction after the defendant admitted...
Court ‘will not tolerate the destruction or concealment of evidence’
Edwards v. 4JLJ, LLC, No. 2:15-CV-299 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 11, 2019) In this case seeking unpaid overtime wages, the court previously imposed sanctions against the defendants for their discovery abuses. This order denied their motion to reconsider those sanctions or to...
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