Case Summaries – Page 84 – Electronic Discovery Law

Mid. Am. Sols. LLC v. Vantiv, Inc., No. 1:16-mc-2, 2016 WL 1611381 (S.D. Ohio April 4, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel production of at-issue data in ?condensed format? where Plaintiff originally requested and was provided with the data in it its ?original and unaltered format? and where the requested re-production was not proportional to the needs of the case because relevant evidence had already been provided; Court denied request for inspection to test accuracy of data produced where Plaintiff had not yet taken full advantage of the data in hand (by failing to take advantage of certain Excel functions) and thus had no basis for questioning the accuracy, thus rendering an inspection out of proportion to the needs of the case

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, fraud and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Barnett v. Deere & Co., No. 2:15-CV-2-KS-MTP, 2016 WL 4544052 (S.D. Miss. Aug. 31, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Applying 5th Circuit common law (but acknowledging the outcome of the motion would not change under recently-amended Rule 37(e)), the court declined to impose sanctions for the destruction of relevant documents pursuant to Defendant?s document retention policy at a time when there was no duty to preserve and, in its discussion of bad faith, noted that the court ?does ?not draw an inference of bad faith when documents are destroyed under a routine policy??

Nature of Case: Product liability

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, including committee minutes and product testing documents

Thurmond v Bowman, No. 14-CV-6465W, 2016 WL 1295957 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 31, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Where Defendants sought spoliation sanctions for Plaintiff?s alleged deletion of social media postings that Defense counsel claimed had disappeared from the relevant account, the evidence indicated that the majority of those posts were merely hidden as the result of Plaintiff?s modification of her security settings and the court noted that the three posts that were missing ?did not seem relevant? and concluded that spoliation sanctions were not warranted; court?s analysis included disagreement with the argument that ?the entirety of a plaintiff?s social media account is per se relevant to any claim for emotional distress damages,? and concluded that the contention that sanctions were warranted for the deletion of any Facebook post swept ?far too broadly?

Nature of Case: Housing discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: facebook (social media / social network)

Nelson v Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co., No. 13-cv-607 (SRN/SER), 2016 WL 6917205 (D. Minn. May 13, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Relying on Plaintiffs? delay in raising its problems with discover and the principle of proportionality, particularly ?the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues and whether the burden of production outweighs the discovery?s likely benefits,? the court denied Plaintiff?s motion to compel additional pre-certification discovery; court?s analysis included rejection of proposed sampling where it was clear that ?sampling would be the beginning rather than the end, of this issue? and because of Plaintiffs? delay in making the suggestions (?But this type of proposal should lead to meaningful conversations during discovery, not at the end of it.?; ?To attempt to begin negotiations about discovery at the end of the discovery period demonstrates at best a lack of diligence and at worst a lack of respect for the Court?s scheduling order.)

Nature of Case: Class action

Electronic Data Involved: Database, email

Kissing Camels Surgery Center, LLC v. Centura Health Corp., No. 12-cv-03012-WJM-NYW, 2016 WL 277721 (D. Colo. Jan. 22, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Where Plaintiffs objected to Defendants? ?duplicative? requests and claimed they had already produced responsive documents but provided Defendants with no guidance as to where such documents could be found within the voluminous production, the court acknowledged that it would ?ordinarily? conclude that Plaintiffs had no obligation to identify responsive documents but, citing the volume of data at issue, the ?asymmetry of information regarding the production between Plaintiffs,? the time the case had been pending, and the fact that additional discovery would be required, the court concluded that Plaintiff should provide additional information and ordered that Defendants would be permitted to identify ten categories of requested documents that Plaintiffs claimed to be duplicative and that Plaintiffs must then identify documents responsive to those requests

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Keim v. ADF Midatlantic LLC, No. 12-CV-80577-MARRA/MATTHEWMAN, 2016 WL 7048835 (S.D. Fla. Dec. 5, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Defendant brought a motion for sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P 37(e)(1) alleging Plaintiff failed to preserve text messages on his cell phone. The text messages at issue were dated in February and March of 2011, while Plaintiff admitted that he anticipated bringing suit on or before October 1, 2011. In his deposition, Plaintiff testified that ?he deletes most of his text messages and does not ?keep them around that long,?? and after carefully reviewing Plaintiff?s deposition transcript, it was ?clear to the court that Plaintiff is utterly confused and uncertain of anything related to the existence or deletion of the February to March 2011 text messages.? The court found that (i) it was possible that the text messages at issue were deleted before a duty to preserve arose; (ii) the ESI was not ?lost because a party failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it;? and (iii) the evidence could not be discovered from other sources. Defendant?s motion for sanctions was denied.

Electronic Data Involved: Text messages

Hausman v. Holland Am. Line-U.S.A., No. CV13-0937 BJR, 2015 WL 51273 (W.D. Wash. Jan. 5, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Judgment vacated and new trial ordered for deliberate spoliation of relevant emails revealed by credible witness after original trial

Nature of Case: Personal injury

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Ye v. Veissman, Inc., No. 14-cv-01531, 2016 WL 950948 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 7, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Where Defendants requested a full archive of social media contents from the decedent and her next of kin from 2007 through the date of Plaintiff?s death in April 2013, the court acknowledged that some social media content may be relevant to the claims and defenses at issue but found that where the request was not tailored to relevant content or limited to a reasonable period of time it was overbroad and Defendants? motion to compel was denied

Nature of Case: Wrongful death

Electronic Data Involved: Social media (Facebook)

Perez v. Mueller, No. 13-C-13-2, 2016 WL 3360422 (E.D. Wis. May 27, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Where Defendants sought to compel discovery from the Secretary of the US Dept. of Labor, court found the proportionality factors in Rule 2(b)(1) ?easily tilt[ed] in favor of disclosure? reasoning that ?[t]he issues in this litigation are important from a public policy perspective, or at least they should be, lest the Secretary be engaging in years of unnecessary litigation at taxpayer expense? and also reasoning that the ?transaction at issue was for more than $13 million dollars? and that ?the federal government has unlimited resources? while Defendants were ?obviously financing their own defense.?

Nature of Case: ERISA

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Browder v. Albuquerque, No. CIV 13-0599 RB/KBM, 2016 WL 3946801 (D.N.M. July 20, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Where relevant video was lost as a result of mistakes made by representatives of the defendant who were attempting to pull and preserve the video from the recording system for the first time and where CDs with the footage ?vanished,? the court reasoned that the errors were symptoms of a ?larger problem: an inadequate information management and evidence retention policy? (a point it relied on significantly in its discussion of culpability) and also found that the plaintiff was prejudiced and imposed sanctions allowing Plaintiff to present evidence that the video existed and was lost through negligence and indicated that if Defendant attempted to elicit testimony from a deputy regarding what he saw on the video (that was viewed by several of defendant?s representatives before it was lost), the jury would be instructed to make any inference they believed was appropriate; the court also ordered Defendant to pay Plaintiff?s expenses and fees incurred in bringing the motion

Nature of Case: Traffic accident involving a police officer

Electronic Data Involved: Video footage

Catagory:Case Summaries