Motion for Sanctions – Page 60 – Electronic Discovery Law

Moore v. Citgo Refining & Chemicals Co., 735 F.3d 309 (5th Cir. Nov. 12, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: No abuse of discretion in dismissal of 17 plaintiffs who violated two court orders to preserve where willfulness was inferred from their disregard of the courts orders, where the failure to seek clarification weighed against any claimed confusion, where the evidence lost was unique and where no lesser sanction would have sufficed (plaintiffs were warned of the possibility of dismissal before it was imposed); no abuse of discretion for dismissal of four additional plaintiffs for failure to preserve emails despite an explicit court order

Nature of Case: FLSA (employment)

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, emails, handwritten notes

Davis v. Carmel Clay Schools, No. 1:11-cv-00771-SEB-MJD, 2013 WL 5487340 (S.D. Ind. Sep. 30, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Where school did not keep records identifying the individuals who requested that hard drive of camera located inside school bus be removed, nor did school keep logs of who handled and/or viewed such hard drives once they were removed, and hard drive containing video footage of alleged assault was removed from subject school bus and then subsequently reinstalled on a different bus by persons unknown, resulting in overwriting of file containing segment that would have captured alleged assault, court denied plaintiffs’ motion for spoliation sanctions finding no evidence to support a conclusion that the act of reinserting the hard drive into another bus was undertaken in order to destroy adverse evidence as opposed to its being mere negligence in the handling of the hard drive, and no evidence to support conclusion that any employee of the school manually deleted the video files in an effort to destroy evidence; court would revisit issue if additional evidence came to light

Nature of Case: Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 claims that plaintiff was subject to unlawful peer-on-peer harassment that violated his constitutional rights, and that school failed to properly train its officials in recognizing and responding to sexual assault and harassment

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive from video camera installed on school bus where incident allegedly occurred

Distefano v. Law Offices of Barbara H. Katsos, PC, No. CV 11-2893(JA)(AKT), 2013 WL 1339548 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 29, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Court found attorney?s duty to preserve was triggered upon receipt of correspondence terminating her representation but withheld judgment on issue of spoliation until hearing could be held

Nature of Case: Legal Malpractice

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, computers

Atlas Resources, Inc. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., No. CIV 09-1113 WJ/KBM, 2013 WL 1277878 (D.N.M. Mar. 28, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Addressing Plaintiff?s fourth and fifth motions for sanctions resulting from the delayed production of relevant ESI for reasons ranging from alleged computer glitches to prior counsel?s failure to turn over highly relevant emails?and current counsel?s failure to timely discovery that those emails had previously been withheld?the court acknowledged current counsel?s efforts to rectify prior discovery abuses (addressed in prior sanctions motions) but nonetheless found that severe sanctions were warranted, including that defendant?s non-equitable counterclaims be stricken, that defendant pay the reasonable costs associated with the filing of the fourth and fifth motions for sanctions, that defendant or its counsel bear the cost of re-depositions (which they had previously offered to do), and that defendant pay a portion of the costs for plaintiff?s experts to supplement their reports

Nature of Case: Claims arising from contract for providing worker?s compensation insurance and claims administration

Electronic Data Involved: Misc. ESI

Home Gambling Network, Inc. v. Piche, No. 2:05-cv-00610-DAE-VCF, 2013 WL 5491952 (D. Nev. Sep. 30, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: District court adopted magistrate judge?s report and recommendation that plaintiffs? motion for terminating sanctions, based in part on defendants? botched production of database, be denied in light of additional evidence (consisting of supplemental report by defense expert stating that database was not corrupt but merely ?offline,? expert testimony and in-court demonstration of operation of database, and information regarding a prior database crash) presented by the parties after the district court vacated different magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that plaintiffs? motion for terminating sanctions be granted, that defendants? answer be stricken and that a default judgment be entered against defendants; in light of additional evidence, magistrate judge found that (1) defendants did produce a mirror image of the database as ordered by the court and there was no basis for sanctions, and (2) something done to plaintiffs’ copy of the database after it was provided to plaintiffs caused the error message

Nature of Case: Patent infringement and various state-law claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, database

Oracle USA, Inc. v. Rimini Street, Inc., No. 2:10-cv-00106-LRH PAL, 2013 WL 1292685 (D. Nev. Mar. 29, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Court imposed spoliation sanctions, including an adverse inference, for defendant?s deletion of a ?software library? despite a duty to preserve

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Software library

Altercare Inc. v. Clark, No. 12CA010211, 2013 WL 3356577 (Ohio Ct. App. June 28, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Where defendant failed to preserve plaintiff?s work computer at a time when litigation should have been reasonably foreseeable (because plaintiff?s employment ended under ?contentious? circumstances and because plaintiff was an attorney) and despite receipt of a specific written request for preservation, the trial court did not err in dismissing defendant?s claims against the plaintiff as a sanction

Nature of Case: Breach of employment contract and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Work computer / computer hard drive

Magnuson v. Newman, No. 10 Civ. 6211(JMF), 2013 WL 5380387 (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 25, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Although court observed there was little question that defendants’ disclosures had not included documents that were once in their possession that would be relevant to the case, as they had failed to produce any emails between and among themselves and any drafts of contracts relating to the issues of the lawsuit, court declined to impose discovery sanctions because plaintiffs failed to carry their burden of establishing that defendants had an obligation to preserve the evidence at the time it was destroyed; court rejected plaintiffs’ contention that defendants’ admitted failure to back up their computers or put a litigation hold in place constituted per se gross negligence, and stated that a party?s failure to adopt good preservation practices was one factor in the determination of whether discovery sanctions should issue

Nature of Case: Fair Labor Standards Act claims brought by a group of television production professionals and companies

Electronic Data Involved: Emails and documents

Yoder & Frey Auctioneers, Inc. v. Eqiupmentfacts LLC, No. 3:10 CV 1590, 2013 WL 1411757 (N.D. Ohio Apr. 8, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: Court declined to impose spoliation sanctions for alleged failure to preserve ?the actual server and software system? allegedly utilized during the violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act where the defendant did not establish the relevance of the server or software system

Nature of Case: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Electronic Data Involved: Server and software system utilized by auction company at time of alleged violation by Defendant

Thompson v. Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co., No. 2:09-CV-905 JCM (NJK), 2013 WL 164245 (D. Nev. Jan. 15, 2013)

Dec 01 2013

Key Insight: District court adopted in its entirety the recommendation of the magistrate judge that Plaintiff?s amended complaint be dismissed and that her answer to defendants? counterclaims be stricken as a sanction for willful and bad faith spoliation where Plaintiff gave her relevant computers to her brother who then took them to Indonesia where he lived and where this spoliation resulted in severe prejudice to defendants; the opinion also upheld a prior order of the magistrate imposing sanctions in the form of findings detrimental to the plaintiff for ?ongoing and repetitive violations of discovery obligations?; as to both the recommendation adopted and the order upheld, the court granted defendant?s request for attorneys fees

Nature of Case: Alleged violation of restrictive covenant with prior employer

Electronic Data Involved: Two computers

Tag:Motion for Sanctions