Noble Roman’s, Inc. v. Hattenhauer Distrib. Co., No. 1:14-cv-01734-WTL-DML, 2016 WL 1162553 (S.D. Ind. Mar. 24, 2016)

In this case, the court granted Plaintiff’s motion for a protective order and ordered that Defendant was prohibited from obtaining the discovery sought from Plaintiff’s shareholder by the at-issue subpoenas. In reaching its conclusion, the court undertook analysis of recently-amended Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1), highlighting the principle of proportionality, and ultimately concluded that Defendant’s subpoenas constituted “discovery run amok” and “fail[ed] the proportionality test under Rule 26(b).”

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Living Color Enters., Inc. v. New Era Aquaculture, Ltd., No. 14-cv-62216-MARRA/MATHEWMAN, 2016 WL 1105297 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 22, 2016)

In this case, text messages were deleted when Defendant failed to turn off the automatic delete function on his cellular phone. Because “the great majority” of the messages were produced from another source—and thus not lost—however, and where the court determined there was no prejudice or evidence of Defendant’s “intent to deprive” or bad faith, Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions was denied.

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Best Payphones, Inc. v. City of New York, Nos. 1-CV-3924 (JG) (VMS), 1-CV-8506 (JG) (VMS), 3-CV-0192 (JG) (VMS); 2016 WL 792396 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 26, 2016)

In this case, the court addressed Defendants’ motion for sanctions for Plaintiff’s failure to preserve hard copy documents and electronically stored information and therefore conducted simultaneous but separate analyses of the alleged spoliation under the common law (tangible items/hard copy) and recently-amended Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e) (ESI). Ultimately, the court determined that Plaintiff was negligent in its failure to preserve relevant information but that the lack of prejudice precluded imposition of the serious sanctions requested.  Instead, Plaintiff was ordered to pay Defendants’ attorneys’ fees and costs related to the motion.

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