Catagory:Case Summaries

Garcia v. City of Laredo, —F.3d—, 2012 WL 6176479 (5th Cir. Dec. 12, 2012)

On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s interpretation of the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”) and concluded that it does not apply to data stored in a personal cell phone.

Plaintiff was previously employed as a police dispatcher for the City of Laredo.  On November 15, 2008, Plaintiff’s cell phone was removed from her unlocked locker by an officer’s wife who then shared its contents with the city’s deputy assistant city manger and the interim/assistant police chief because she believed that she had discovered evidence of Plaintiff’s violations of department policy.  Later, investigators successfully downloaded one video recording and more than thirty digital images from Plaintiff’s phone, but were unable to download text messages.  Following further investigation it was determined that Plaintiff had violated department rules and regulations and she was terminated from her employment.

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Micron Tech., Inc. v. Rambus, Inc., No. 00-792-SLR (D. Del. Jan. 2, 2013)

Following remand from the Federal Circuit, the District Court considered the question of “whether Rambus acted in bad faith when it engaged in spoliation and the nature and extent of any prejudice suffered by Micron as a result . . . .” and found that “Rambus’ spoliation was done in bad faith, that the spoliation prejudiced Micron, and that the appropriate sanction [was] to declare the patents-in-suit unenforceable against Micron.”

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Day v. LSI Corp., No. CIV 11-186-TUC-CKJ, 2012 WL 6674434 (D. Ariz. Dec. 20, 2012)

In this case arising from the alleged breach of an employment contract, discrimination, and related claims, the court found that Defendant was “at fault” for failing to preserve relevant evidence and imposed serious sanctions accordingly.  Notably, the court’s analysis focused significantly on the actions of Defendant’s General Counsel, who the court found had “at least acted willfully” in his failure to preserve particular evidence, and also relied, in part, on Defendant’s failure to follow its own document retention policies.

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Bozic v. City of Washington, No. 2:11-cv-674, 2012 WL 6050610 (W.D. Pa. Dec. 5, 2012)

Addressing Plaintiff’s accusation of spoliation based on the destruction of the contents of an audio tape, the court considered “the requisite mental state or level of scienter” necessary to establish bad faith, as is required in the Third Circuit, and found that the circumstances surrounding the destruction established sufficient culpability, that it was “highly likely” that Plaintiff was materially prejudiced, and that “no lesser sanction than at least a spoliation adverse inference would avoid substantial unfairness” and ordered an adverse inference and monetary sanctions.

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