St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc. v. Tormey, No. 11-cv-00327, 2013 WL 3270374 (D. Minn. Mar. 25, 2013)

Key Insight: Court addressed Plaintiff?s motion for sanctions for alleged fabrication of evidence and violation of the court’s order to produce certain hardware (computers, hard drives) related to the alleged fabrication but denied sanctions where Defendant consistently claimed he had no additional hardware to be produced and consistently stuck with his explanations related to the creation of the allegedly fabricated documents and surrounding circumstances; regarding fabrication, court explained that ?Discrepancies and inconsistencies without more, however, do not necessarily fabrication make.?; as to both spoliation and fabrication court indicated it would be up to the jury to decide who to believe

Nature of Case: Claims related to loan repayment and whether loan to defendant was forgiven in “walk-away” agreement

Electronic Data Involved: Contents of hard drives