Star Direct Telecom, Inc. v. Global Crossing Bandwidth, Inc., No. 05-CV-6734T, 2012 WL 1067664 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 22, 2012)

Key Insight: Where court found no evidence that defendant had instituted any litigation hold or any evidence surrounding its collection efforts and where defendant failed to preserve potentially relevant hard drives despite the knowledge that the emails potentially contained thereon could not be retrieved from the company?s backup tapes, the court found that defendant had acted with gross negligence and imposed monetary sanctions but declined to impose more severe sanctions where there was no evidence of ?bad faith or egregious gross negligence? or that plaintiff had been prejudiced by the loss

Nature of Case: Breach of contract and various tort claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, hard drives