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Spoliation Sanctions Denied Against Plaintiff Who Dropped Her Cell Phone in the Bathroom
In Shaffer v. Gaither, Case No. 14-00106 (W.D. N.C., Sept. 1, 2016), Plaintiff, a former Assistant District Attorney, sued Defendant, the former District Attorney, in his official capacity for claims of sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge as well as in his individual capacity for violation of the Equal
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Court Declines to Order Spoliation Sanctions Despite Re-Imaging of Hard Drive
In David Mizer Enterprises, Inc. v. Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc., Case No. 14-2192 (C.D. Ill., Aug. 31, 2016), Plaintiff sued Defendant over a former business arrangement whereby Defendant used Plaintiff’s proprietary software for three years in exchange for a fee. Plaintiff granted Defendant the ability to host proprietary copyrighted pages owned
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Court Denies Spoliation Sanctions in Delaware Bay Oil Spill Litigation
In re Frescati Shipping Company Ltd., Case Nos. 05-305, 08-2898 (E.D. Pa., July 25, 2016), the Eastern District of Pennsylvania considered spoliation sanctions in a litigation involving which party should bear the costs of the multi-million dollar oil spill cleanup that followed a collision between oil tanker M/T Athos I
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Spoliation Sanctions Denied, Insufficient Degree of Bad Faith in Deleting Email
In OrchestrateHR, Inc. et. al. v. Trombetta, et. al., Case No. 13-2110 (N.D. Texas, April 18, 2016), Plaintiffs sued Defendants over violations of a former employee’s (Trombetta) non-compete and confidentiality agreements. During discovery, Defendant Borden-Perlman Insurance was twice sanctioned for discovery violations. Eventually, Plaintiffs filed sanctions motions against all the
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Pennsylvania District Court Denies Request For Adverse Inference Instruction Spoliation Sanction
Botey v. Green, et. al., Case No. 12-01520 (M.D. Pa., April 4, 2016) is a personal injury case in which Plaintiff alleged serious injury resulting from the negligence of defendant truck driver. Plaintiff was unable to depose the trucker after a determination that the trucker suffered from dementia. Plaintiff then
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Monetary Sanctions Imposed Following Emails Deleted From Family Computer
In Prezio Health, Inc. v. Schenk, et. al., Case No. 13-1463 (D. Conn., Jan. 11, 2016), Plaintiff filed a Motion for Sanctions after Defendants failed to comply with a previous court order compelling Defendants to produce metadata for eight specific emails. After the court entered the order, Plaintiff notified the
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Deleted Email Leads Court to Vacate $21 Million Verdict
In Hausman v. Holland America Line-U.S.A., et. al., Case No. 13-0937 (W.D. Wash., Jan. 5, 2016), Plaintiff sued Defendants for injuries sustained when a sliding door on a cruise ship closed improperly on his head. He was ultimately awarded over $21 million by a jury. In a bizarre twist, a
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California Appellate Court Upholds Terminating Sanctions Due to Cell Phone Wipe
In the defamation case Woodell v. Bernstein, et. al., Case No. 14-2836 (Cal. App., Dec. 30, 2015), Plaintiff claimed to have lost his cell phone while out walking his dog. Defendant Bernstein later found the cell phone on his front law near an uprooted sign endorsing Defendant Kiraly for public office. Defendants
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Court Compels ESI Production and Reserves Judgment on Sanctions
In Granados et. al. v. Traffic Bar and Restaurant, Inc. et. al., Case No. 13-0500 (S.D. N.Y., Dec. 30, 2015), a lawsuit filed by former employees of Defendants under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Defendants failed to answer the lawsuit and the court entered default judgment against Defendants for failure to
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Monetary Sanctions and Adverse Inference Instruction Ordered Following Document Destruction
In the patent case of Star Envirotech, Inc. v. Redline Detection, LLC et. al., Case No. 12-01861 (C.D. Cal., Dec. 16, 2015), Defendant failed to produce documents responsive to several of Plaintiff’s document requests. After motion practice, the court twice ordered Defendant to produce requested customer information and sales data