Tag:Data Preservation

Key Insight: Where defendant destroyed relevant audio recordings of City Council meetings despite anticipation of litigation but argued that the destruction was allowed under state law (which controlled the relevant retention period for such recordings), among other things, the court found that the tapes had been destroyed ?with a reckless disregard? of the duty to preserve which constituted bad faith and ordered an adverse inference establishing that if the tapes were available, they would have contained evidence favorable to the plaintiff

Nature of Case: Land Use/Zoning

Electronic Data Involved: Recordings of City Council meetings

Key Insight: Where the general manager of the defendant Red Roof Inn claimed to have attempted to preserve video surveillance footage by asking for it to be copied but alleged that she later discovered that the footage was not copied and that the original footage had been automatically recorded over by that time, the court found, ?based on overwhelming evidence of Red Roof?s cavalier attitude toward its discovery obligations,? that defendant?s spoliation was grossly negligent and ordered an adverse inference and that defendant pay plaintiff?s reasonable attorneys? fees and costs associated with the preparation for the motion for sanctions

Nature of Case: Unlawful detention and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Surveillance footage

Key Insight: Addressing defendant?s motion for sanctions, the court found that defendant?s CEO and outside counsel ?should have done more to ensure that relevant evidence was preserved? and that defendant had been prejudiced where certain documents had been lost due to plaintiff?s reliance on a verbal ?100 percent document retention policy? (i.e. the company deleted nothing) and because of plaintiff?s failure to inform its accountants of the need to preserve, but declined to impose drastic sanctions and ordered that the jury be informed of plaintiff?s failure to preserve certain relevant information

Nature of Case: Allegations of anticompetitive acts

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Key Insight: Where plaintiffs alleged that examination of defendant?s laptop and other storage devices revealed evidence of spoliation and filed a motion for default judgment, the court reasoned that the evidence did not support a finding of intentional spoliation or bad faith, that the risk of prejudice to plaintiffs was small, that there was plenty of information for plaintiffs to utilize to pursue their claims, that public policy favored disposition on the merits, and that a less drastic sanction was available (namely a possible adverse inference instruction), and denied plaintiffs? motion; the recommendation of the Magistrate Judge was adopted by the District Court 2011 WL 5975127

Nature of Case: Claim for damages arising from property development

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Key Insight: Although the allegedly spoliated information was likely relevant, court denied motion for spoliation sanctions where plaintiff?s pre-litigation letter expressing dissatisfaction with defendant?s work did not put defendants on notice that the at-issue data was relevant and should be preserved and where there was no evidence that defendant intended to destroy the data but rather that the information was lost because the computer on which it was stored did not save the information and instead deleted it before it began a new job; court also noted that defendants had provided the requested information upon plaintiff?s request prior to filing of litigation

Nature of Case: Breach of Contract

Electronic Data Involved: WinOPS data

Key Insight: District court did not abuse its discretion when it denied plaintiff?s motion for spoliation sanctions against remaining defendant where defendant was not responsible for the destruction of the relevant servers and the district court thus ?balanced the lack of any assertion of wrongdoing by [defendant] with the harm caused to [plaintiff?s] claims? and where Ohio law provided a remedy for a party injured by another party?s spoliation of evidence, namely a claim for the tort of spoliation (which plaintiff apparently asserted against the actual spoliating party)

Nature of Case: Copyright/trade secret infringement, intentional spoliation

Electronic Data Involved: Servers containing relevant ESI