Consol. Edison CO. of NY, Inc. & Subsidiaries v. U.S., 2009 WL 3418533 (Fed. Cl. Oct. 21, 2009)

Key Insight: In very long and complicated tax litigation, court found no spoliation absent a duty to preserve where, at the time the data was lost due to migration to a new email system, plaintiffs were involved in routine audit and administrative procedures likely to resolve the relevant dispute and thus had no reason to believe litigation would necessarily ensue (?Indeed, not every dispute with the IRS leads to litigation or ?anticipates? litigation); where counsel provided contradictory statements as to whether litigation was anticipated such that a duty to preserve would have arisen, court determined counsel was essentially unreliable and thus relied on ?other testimony or exhibits? and relied on counsel?s testimony only ?sparingly, when it was uncontested?

Nature of Case: Tax litigation

Electronic Data Involved: Emails