Case Summaries – Page 379 – Electronic Discovery Law

Despite Evidence of Intentional and Negligent Concealment, Bankruptcy Court Dismisses Trustee’s Spoliation of Evidence Counterclaims Because No Injury Was Shown

Dec 06 2005

In re Tri-State Armored Services, Inc., 332 B.R. 690 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2005)

Insurance company brought adversary proceeding against Chapter 7 trustee, seeking either equitable rescission of employee dishonesty, crime, and disappearance insurance policies issued to debtor armored car company, or declaratory judgment that coverage did not exist under the policies. The trustee asserted several counterclaims against the insurer and served discovery requests that sought the production of all documents, including emails related to the insurance policies and the trustee’s claims. The trustee thereafter filed a motion to compel and obtained an order directing the insurer to comply with the outstanding discovery requests. Still, the insurer produced no emails. Read More

Allianz Ins. Co. v. Otero, 353 F. Supp. 2d 415 (S.D.N.Y. 2004)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Where defendants maintained that there was more to a particular claim file than what was produced, that material was destroyed and that they were prejudiced, court denied defendants’ request for dismissal of all claims for negligent spoliation of evidence, finding that defendants had not established sufficient prejudice to warrant the extreme remedy sought

Nature of Case: Insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Computer-generated claim file

Advantacare Health Partners, LP v. Access IV, 2005 WL 1398641 (N.D. Cal. June 14, 2005) (Unpublished)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court denied individual defendant’s motion for reconsideration of default judgment entered against her and other defendants for continued destruction of evidence and continued possession of plaintiff’s proprietary files; although there was no evidence that individual defendant personally engaged in wrongful acts, she was not insulated by simply leaving compliance with court orders to other defendant; further, individual had numerous opportunities to disavow knowledge of misconduct or detail what efforts she personally took to comply with court orders but never did so

Nature of Case: Misapproriation of trade secrets and related torts

Electronic Data Involved: Proprietary information in electronic form

Computek Computer & Office Supplies, Inc. v. Walton, 156 S.W.3d 217 (Tex. App. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Permanent injunction that restrained defendant from “[r]emoving or destroying any files, or copies of files, including but not limited to Defendants’ computer or computer files” was overbroad because it enjoined activities defendant had a legal right to perform, such as deleting records and files that had nothing to do with the subject litigation

Nature of Case: Company sued former employee and his competing business for misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: Computer files

Cahill v. Doe, 879 A.2d 943 (Del. Super. Ct. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court denied John Doe’s motion for protective order preventing internet service provider from disclosing his identity, finding that (1) plaintiffs had, in good faith, alleged that John Doe had used the internet as a tool for defamation, (2) the identifying information sought was directly and materially related to thir claim, and (3) the information could not be obtained from any other source

Nature of Case: Elected town council member and wife sued anonymous user of an internet “blog” who posted defamatory statements about plaintiffs on blog

Electronic Data Involved: Blog posting

Arista Records LLC v. Does 1-20, 2005 WL 3776346 (D. Colo. Nov. 7, 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court granted plaintiffs’ ex parte application for leave to take immediate discovery from defendants’ Internet Service Provider, whose subscriber activity log files would allow plaintiffs to discover each defendant’s true name, address and other identifying information

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ISP’s subscriber activity logs

Bd. of Managers of Atrium Condo. v. West 79th St. Corp., 792 N.Y.S.2d 444 (N.Y. App. Div. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court denied defendant’s request for “electronic discovery of plaintiff’s attorneys’ computers” to determine whether affidavit of service of reply brief was backdated

Electronic Data Involved: Plaintiff’s counsel’s computers

BDT Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int., Inc., 405 F.3d 415 (6th Cir. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court approved recover of taxable costs, including ?electronic scanning and imaging of documents? where declarations established that the costs were ?necessarily incurred? and where ?electronic scanning and imaging could be interpreted as ?exemplification and copies of papers??costs specifically allowed under the relevant statute

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Fast v. Mayer, 692 N.W.2d 138 (N.D. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: No abuse of discretion to deny mother’s request to conduct forensic examination of father’s computer; although mother alleged that computer contained pornography, there was no evidence the child had seen it and it would be impossible to definitively attribute the pornography to father, since other adults used the computer and certain components were salvaged from other computers

Nature of Case: Mother sought to require supervision of child’s visits with father

Electronic Data Involved: Computer hard drive

Clark Constr. Group, Inc. v. City of Memphis, 229 F.R.D. 131 (W.D. Tenn. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court imposed sanctions against city in the form of a rebuttable adverse inference, and fees and costs related to the discovery dispute, based upon city’s grossly negligent failure to institute litigation hold and consequent destruction of relevant hard copy documents

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation

Electronic Data Involved: Email printouts and other hard copy documents

Catagory:Case Summaries