-
Court Denies Spoliation Argued For the First Time on Appeal
In Zamsky v. Dodge Premier, Inc. et. al., No. 2107 EDA 2014 (Jun. 23, 2015), the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held that an appellant could not argue that the lower court ignored potential spoliation by the appellee without supporting the argument with some legal authority. Plaintiff filed suit against a
-
Bad Faith ESI Destruction A Question For The Jury
In Malibu Media, LLC v. Michael Harrison, Case No. 12-cv-1117 (June 8, 2015), the Southern District of Indiana considered Plaintiff’s objection to the magistrate judge’s recommendation that the court should not sanction Defendant for destroying evidence. Plaintiff, a limited liability company that makes pornographic films, accused Defendant of illegally downloading its
-
DC Court Declines to Dismiss a Case for eDiscovery Misconduct
In a recent Order entered in Lynn M. Johnson v. BAE Systems, Inc. et. al., Civil Action No. 11-cv-02172, May 27, 2015, the District Court for the District of Columbia entered an adverse inference instruction but declined to dismiss an action after Plaintiff engaged in eDiscovery misconduct. Plaintiff, a U.S.
-
Court Rejects Defendants’ Argument that No Spoliation Occurred Because Deleted Files Could Still Be Restored
In its Report and Recommendation on Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions in Malibu Media, LLC v. Tashiro, Case No. 13-cv-00205, published May 18, 2015, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana considered whether spoliation had occurred in this copyright infringement case after Plaintiffs informed the court that a hard drive produced by
-
Missing Audio Recording Results in Spoliation Sanctions
Defendant accused Plaintiff of spoliating a recorded conversation between Plaintiff’s FRCP 30(b)(6) witness and Plaintiff’s former branch manager in Compass Bank v. Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, Civil No. 13-CV-0654-BAS(WVG)(S.D. Cal. May 8, 2015). Defendant had propounded discovery requests for plaintiff ESI that sought any audio recordings regarding the line of credit at dispute in
-
Bad Faith Spoliation Found Where Defendant Discarded Relevant Computer
In Grady v. Brodersen, No. 13-cv-00752-REB-NYW (D.Colo. Mar. 23, 2015), a copyright infringement case filed in May 2013, the District Court of Colorado entered a scheduling order on February 20, 2014, ordering Defendant to preserve all electronically stored information (ESI), including metadata, and to identify his relevant devices. On February 27,
-
Court Declines to Order Spoliation Sanctions Despite Intentional Deletion of ESI
In Selectica v. Novatus, Inc., Case No. 6:13-cv-1708-Orl-40TBS (M.D. Fla. Mar. 12, 2015), the Middle District of Florida considered whether to order spoliation sanctions after Defendant’s employee admitted to deleting relevant ESI. Plaintiff’s former employee, Mr. Graham Holt (“Holt”), had left his employment with Plaintiff company to work for Defendant company. While
-
Reformatted Laptop Leads to Allegations of Defendant Spoliation
The plaintiff in Advantor Systems Corp. v. DRS Technical Services, Inc., Case No. 6:14-cv-533-Orl-31DAB (Jan. 28, 2015) alleged spoliation after learning that Defendant had failed to properly preserve data on a laptop at issue in the case. The district court in the Middle District of Florida considered whether to order spoliation
-
No Spoliation After Defendants Inadvertently Destroy Video Surveillance
In Wardner v. American Airlines, et al., Case No. 14-22011-CIV (S.D.Fl. Jan. 12, 2015), a Florida district court considered whether to enter an adverse inference instruction against Defendants’ due to alleged spoliation of video surveillance. Plaintiff, who was arrested following alleged disruptive behavior at the Miami International Airport, filed suit against the airline, Miami-Dade County,
-
Adverse Inference Instruction or Evidence Preclusion as Spoliation Sanction?
What should one do when a computer containing highly-relevant electronically stored information (ESI) crashes? For a case where a poor judgment was made in response to a computer crash, see Dorchester Financial Holdings Corp. v. Banco BRJ S.A., No. 11-CV-1529(S.D.N.Y. Dec. 15, 2014). Plaintiff alleged a contract with Defendant, who