Court Orders Adverse Inference for Failure to Preserve Evidence following Notice that such Evidence May Have Been Relevant in Future Litigation
KCH Servs., Inc. v. Vanaire, Inc., 2009 WL 2216601 (W.D. Ky. July 22, 2009)
Plaintiff moved the court for default judgment, sanctions, or an adverse inference instruction based on defendant Vanaire’s spoliation of evidence, including the deletion of software and electronically stored information (“ESI”) from its computers. Specifically, following a phone call from plaintiff’s president indicating his belief that Vanaire was using plaintiff’s software, defendant Guillermo Vanegas instructed Vanaire employees to delete any software “that he did not purchase or did not own.” Additionally, even after plaintiff filed its complaint and sent an evidence-preservation letter, Vanaire failed in its duty to preserve “by continuing to delete and overwrite” ESI.