No Sanctions for Destruction of Data Resulting from Mistaken Belief that Computers had been Imaged
Fed. Trade Comm’n v. First Univ. Lending, LLC, No. 09-82322-CIV, 2011 WL 673879 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 17, 2011)
Relevant data was lost when a group of computers was scrubbed and sold by defendants with the permission of the court-appointed Receiver. The permission was given, on the condition that the computers were scrubbed, because of the Receiver’s mistaken belief that all relevant computers had been imaged. As a result of the loss of data, defendants filed a motion for spoliation sanctions for what they described as “the FTC’s bad-faith destruction of Defendants’ computer systems.” For the reasons discussed below, defendants’ motion was denied.