-
Jury to Decide ESI Spoliation Issue in Wrongful Termination Suit
In Evans v. Quintiles Transnational Corp., Case No. 13-00987 (D. S.C., Dec. 23, 2015), Plaintiff sued Defendant, her former employer, for wrongful termination. She alleged she was terminated in retaliation after she expressed a desire to report her supervisor for an argument they had about commission. On summary judgment, the court
-
NYC Fined Spoliation Sanctions for Gross Negligence in Failure to Preserve ESI
The Southern District of New York recently imposed spoliation sanctions after holding that New York City negligently destroyed documents in a civil rights case. In Stinson et. al. v. City of New York et. al., Case No. 10-4228 (S.D. N.Y., Jan. 2, 2016), Plaintiffs sued Defendants NYC, various NYPD officers,
-
Spoliation Sanctions Proper for Failure to Implement Litigation Hold
In Pegasus Aviation I, Inc. et. al. v. Varig Logistica S.A., 2015 NY Slip Op 09187, No. 153 (N.Y. App., Dec. 15, 2015), the New York County Supreme Court granted a motion for spoliation sanctions, striking Defendant Varig’s answer and ordering an adverse inference. The other Defendants appealed, and the
-
NY Court Orders Adverse Inference Instruction for Email Spoliation
In Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC v. Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, Case No. 654586/2012 (Supreme Court of New York, New York County, December 7, 2015), Plaintiff sued Defendant over trust funds allegedly mistakenly turned over to Defendant and kept. Plaintiff filed a Motion for Sanctions, asserting that Defendant failed to
-
Party Seeks A Preliminary Injunction Following Spoliation Decision
In HMS Holdings Corp. et. al. v. Arendt et. al. NY Slip Op 51034(U) (July 14, 2015) (a case we previously wrote about in which the Albany County Supreme Court found that two attorney Defendants had intentionally spoliated evidence), the Plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction based upon a previous adverse inference
-
Maryland District Court Imposes Spoliation Sanctions
In Cognate BioServices, Inc., et. al. v. Smith, et. al., Case No. 13-1797 (D. Md., Aug. 31, 2015), the District of Maryland recently considered whether to sanction Defendant for spoliation of evidence. Defendant Smith is the former CEO of Plaintiff Cognate. While employed at Cognate, Smith took part in contract negotiations between Cognate and
-
Spoliation Sanctions Denied Under Third Circuit’s “Bad Faith” Standard
In Flanders v. Dzugan et. al., Case No. 12-1481 (W.D. Pa., August 24, 2015), the Western District of Pennsylvania considered whether to impose spoliation sanctions upon Defendants for their alleged failure to preserve certain ESI, including emails, and failure to properly institute a litigation hold. The parties had entered into an ESI protocol that limited Defendants’ email
-
Sanctions and Adverse Inference Instruction Ordered Against Defendant and Counsel for Severe eDiscovery Abuse
In HM Electronics, Inc. v. R.F. Technologies, Inc. et. al., Case No. 12-2884 (S.D. Ca., August 7, 2015), Plaintiff moved for sanctions, alleging that Defendant and its attorneys committed numerous discovery violations, including intentionally destroying relevant documents, falsely certifying that certain documents existed, and filing false reports with the court, among other things. Plaintiff
-
Court Orders Evidentiary Hearing on ESI Spoliation Allegations
In Harte et. al. v. Board of Commissioners of Johnson County Kansas, et. al., Case No. 13-cv-02586 (July 13, 2015), the District Court for the District of Kansas considered Plaintiffs’ motion to impose sanctions against Defendants for “obstructive practices in conducting discovery.” The suit alleges that on April 20, 2012 Defendants improperly entered
-
Update on Forensic Examination of Hard Drives and Computers
When Can a Party Obtain a Computer Forensic Examination? A year ago, ILS focused its monthly newsletter on the forensic examination of hard drives, computers, and mobile devices. Since then, the federal courts have issued several new decisions on the subject. Below is a summary of recent case law regarding