Catagory:Case Summaries

1
Maldonado v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 2010 WL 1980319 (D. Kan. May 18, 2010)
2
United States v. Laurent, 2010 WL 2404419 (1st Cir. June 17, 2010):
3
Booker v. Mass. Dept. of Public Health, 612 F.3d 34 (1st Cir. 2010)
4
Pitney Bowes Gov. Solutions, Inc. v. United States, 94 Fed. Cl. 1 (Fed. Cl. 2010)
5
Trusz v. USB Realty Investors LLC, 2010 WL 3583064 (D. Conn. Sept. 7, 2010)
6
Fleming v. Escort, Inc., 2010 WL 3833995 (D. Idaho Sept. 24, 2010)
7
State v. Absher, 2010 WL 3860501 (N.C. App. Ct. Oct. 5, 2010)
8
United States v. Knowles, 623 F.3d 381 (6th Cir. 2010)
9
Ferron v. Echostar Satellite, LLC, 2010 WL 5395716 (6th Cir. Dec. 28, 2010)
10
Estate of Eva Boles v. Nat?l Heritage Realty, Inc., 2010 WL 1759026 (N.D. Miss. Apr. 27, 2010)

Maldonado v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 2010 WL 1980319 (D. Kan. May 18, 2010)

Key Insight: Court denied motion for a protective order preventing disclosure of the video of defendant?s train colliding with plaintiffs? car where defendant?s concerns about video manipulation or commercial exploitation was unwarranted and unsupported by evidence beyond speculation; court ordered production of event recorder data for a relevant time period and, because of the need for proprietary software to analyze the data, ordered defendant to either secure permission for plaintiff to utilize the software independently and produce the data and software outright or make the data and software available at a mutually agreeable time and place for plaintiff?s evaluation

Nature of Case: Claims arising from train vs. car collision

Electronic Data Involved: Video of collision & event recorder data and related software

United States v. Laurent, 2010 WL 2404419 (1st Cir. June 17, 2010):

Key Insight: For the erasure of relevant surveillance tape pursuant to department practice, the trial court properly denied defendant?s request for dismissal absent evidence of destruction in bad faith because the evidence was not exculpatory but rather ?potentially useful?; for the delayed disclosure of the existence and subsequent destruction of the tape, trial court properly denied request for sanctions absent a showing of prejudice; trial court properly denied request for an adverse inference absent evidence of bad faith

Nature of Case: Criminal drug charges

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance tape

Booker v. Mass. Dept. of Public Health, 612 F.3d 34 (1st Cir. 2010)

Key Insight: Trial court did not err in failing to issue an adverse inference instruction where plaintiff failed to establish the evidentiary foundation for such an instruction, namely that the party accused of spoliation was 1) aware of the pending claim, and 2) aware of the document?s relevance to that claim

Nature of Case: Retaliation, torotuous interference with contractual employment relations

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Trusz v. USB Realty Investors LLC, 2010 WL 3583064 (D. Conn. Sept. 7, 2010)

Key Insight: Where plaintiff accused defendant of a ?document dump? in the wake of its production of 4,004,183 pages of documents and where defendants argued that the high volume was a result of plaintiff?s overbroad discovery requests, the court reasoned that the issue could have been avoided had counsel conferred to refine search terms and ordered the parties to confer in good faith to reach agreement regarding reducing the volume of discovery and that absent agreement, a special master would be appointed

Nature of Case: Claims arising from alleged concealment of overvaluing real estate investments

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

State v. Absher, 2010 WL 3860501 (N.C. App. Ct. Oct. 5, 2010)

Key Insight: Where police department failed to preserve video surveillance footage containing images of the alleged assault at issue despite a specific written request for preservation by defendants? counsel and instead altered the tape to remove significant portions and then destroyed the original, superior court did not err in dismissing the charges against defendants because of the irreparable prejudice caused by the loss of the video tape

Nature of Case: Criminal/Assault

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance footage

United States v. Knowles, 623 F.3d 381 (6th Cir. 2010)

Key Insight: Where, ?in order to admit physical evidence, the possibility of misidentification or alteration must be ?eliminated, not absolutely, but as a matter of reasonably probability?? and where the authenticity of the DVD showed at trial (which was a copy of a copy of the original videotape) was supported in various ways, including the testimony of a witness who had viewed the content of all copies of the DVD and original tape that the content was the same, the testimony of the agent responsible for creating the copy used in the courtroom, and testimony from other witnesses that the content of the tape depicted actual events, the court determined that the trial court did not err by admitting the DVD into evidence and affirmed defendant?s conviction

Nature of Case: Sexual exploitation of minor

Electronic Data Involved: DVD admitted into evidence

Ferron v. Echostar Satellite, LLC, 2010 WL 5395716 (6th Cir. Dec. 28, 2010)

Key Insight: Where defendants produced a CD containing responsive ESI, including links to relevant graphic images which plaintiff viewed, but where the links eventually ?expired? and the images could no longer be seen and where defendants thereafter refused to produce printed copies of the previously produced advertisements, the court denied plaintiff?s motion for sanctions where plaintiff had a duty to preserve relevant evidence in his possession but failed to take steps to preserve the images for future use

Nature of Case: Violations of Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act

Electronic Data Involved: Expired links to relevant images

Estate of Eva Boles v. Nat?l Heritage Realty, Inc., 2010 WL 1759026 (N.D. Miss. Apr. 27, 2010)

Key Insight: Where production of defendants? general ledger was necessary because there was no suitable alternative to provide the information, but where defendants? counsel asserted that such production would require ?hundreds of hours? and involve great expense, court noted defendants failure to produce any details in support of its assertion and that plaintiff was willing to bear the reasonable costs and granted plaintiff?s motion to compel

Electronic Data Involved: General ledger in electronic format

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