Motion for Sanctions – Page 47 – Electronic Discovery Law

Mpala v. City of New Haven, No. 3:12-CV-01580 (VLB), 2014 WL 883892 (D. Conn. Mar. 6, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Plaintiff’s motion for sanctions based on spoliation of evidence denied, where two surveillance videos that plaintiff claimed had been destroyed never actually existed, and relevance of the third video that may have existed was “tenuous at best”

Nature of Case: Pro se plaintiff alleged constitutional violations stemming from his suspension from the New Haven Public Library

Electronic Data Involved: Surveillance videos

Miller v. Fed. Express Corp., No. 49A02-1307-PL-619, 2014 WL 1318698 (Ind. Ct. App. Apr. 3, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Although there may have remained a genuine issue of material fact concerning spoliation based on employer’s failure to preserve contents of employee?s computer or make a complete archival backup of the contents when the computer was replaced, summary judgment in favor of the employers was properly granted since the employers were immune from the claims under Section 230(c) of the federal Communications Decency Act as providers of an interactive computer service (i.e., company network and access to internet)

Nature of Case: Individual alleged defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress against employers of authors of anonymous comments posted regarding online article

Electronic Data Involved: Comments posted regarding online article; contents of computer used by author of comments

Knickerbocker v. Corinthian Colleges, No C12-1142JLR, 2014 WL 1356205 (W.D. Wash. Apr. 7, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Court found that Defendant and its counsels? ?lackluster search for documents, failure to implement a litigation hold, deletion of evidence, refusal to cooperation with Plaintiffs in the discovery process (particularly as evidenced by its withholding of information regarding both the backup tapes and its interpretation of the parties? Stipulated Order), reliance on a recklessly false declaration, shifting litigation positions, and inaccurate representations to the court constitute bad faith or conduct tantamount to bad faith? and ordered payment of Plaintiffs? attorneys fees ?incurred due to Corinthian?s bad faith discovery practices? and also ordered fines against Defendant ($25,000) and its counsel ($10,000)

Nature of Case: Employment Litigation (discrimination, hostile work environment)

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, including email, ESI on backup tapes

Volcan Group Inc. v. Omnipoint Commc?ns, Inc., 552 Fed. Appx. 644 (9th Cir. Jan. 9, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: District court did not abuse discretion in dismissal of Plaintiff?s breach of contract action where Plaintiff failed to preserve (i.e., spoliated) relevant materials and where the record also suggested that certain evidence had been falsified

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Woodlands Dev. LLC v. Regions Bank, 141 So.3d 357 (La. Ct. App. 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Trial court abused its discretion in dismissing Defendant?s case where there was no evidence that Defendant?s document retention policy (which gave employees discretion to determine which emails should be saved and deleted the remainder after 90days) was operated in bad faith and where the potentially relevant emails were already deleted by the time suit was filed, thus lessening (if not eliminating) the impact of the delay in issuing a litigation hold

Nature of Case: Declaratory judgment action brought by promissory note maker and guarantors against note holder

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Toppan Photomasks, Inc. v. Park, No. 13-cv-03323-MMC (JCS), 2014 WL 2567914 (N.D. Cal. May 29, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Where defendant?s duty to preserve arose upon threat of litigation and where he was reminded of the obligation in correspondence with opposing counsel and then ordered by the court to preserve, the court found that the level of culpability rose with each indication and thus found that the defendant had failed to preserve ESI in bad faith but, absent evidence of the level of resulting prejudice (attempts to recover the deleted data had not yet been undertaken), declined to impose a an adverse inference but ordered monetary sanctions

Nature of Case: Trade secret, breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: ESI on multiple devices

Mazzei v. Money Store, No. 01cv5694 (JGK)(RLE), 2014 WL 3610894 (S.D.N.Y. July 21, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Defendant failed to preserve data in its control (an issue it hotly contested) when it sold certain assets of its wholly owned subsidiary, including the database/?system? that contained the at issue data; court found failure to preserve was willful and in bad faith and that plaintiff had been prejudiced by the loss; where a non-party who works with defendant indicated that it had information from the at issue system but that the information was not ?readable? and that it would be expensive to extract and convert it, the court ordered defendant to bear the cost of determining whether the system was searchable and to pay plaintiff his attorneys fees for the motion for sanctions

Nature of Case: Class action re: violation of Truth in Lending Act

Electronic Data Involved: Database

Hawley v. Mphasis Corp., No. 12 Civ. 592(DAB)(JLC), 2014 WL 3610946 (S.D.N.Y. July 22, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Court declined to impose sanctions for spoliation of contents of Plaintiff?s work laptop (by deleting the data and reissuing the computer to another employee) where despite the court?s finding that defendant had been grossly negligent in its failure to preserve, a presumption of relevance was not warranted and plaintiff failed to demonstrate that the lost documents would have supported his claim; regarding the destruction of plaintiff?s supervisor?s laptop (who had resigned), the court ordered an adverse inference where the court found that the failure to preserve was grossly negligent and where defendant?s conduct was sufficiently egregious to warrant a finding that the evidence was unfavorable to it (notably, the court indicated it ?[did] not matter? who had wiped the hard drive because defendant should have taken steps to preserve the data well in advance of the supervisor?s resignation); court ordered an adverse inference for defendant?s failure to produce certain evidence

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Contents of plaintiff’s laptop and supervisor’s laptop

Clemons v. Corrections Corp. of Amer., Inc., No. 1:11-CV-339, 1:11-cv-340, 2014 WL 3507299 (E.D. Tenn. July 14, 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Where defendant attempted to preserve relevant video by assigning a part time maintenance/IT employee to copy the relevant portion but failed to discover that the wrong portion was copied before the tape was overwritten, the Magistrate Judge found that the failure to preserve the relevant footage was grossly negligent and recommended a mandatory adverse inference, that defendant be prohibited from offering evidence or testimony from witnesses who viewed the unavailable footage and that plaintiff be awarded reasonable attorney?s fees; the district court adopted the recommendations

Nature of Case: Claims of deliberate indifference to prisoner’s medical needs

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance footage

Duluc v. AC & L Good Corp., 990 N.Y.S.2d 24 (N.Y. App. Div. 2014)

Dec 01 2014

Key Insight: Court affirmed denial of motion for sanctions where defendant preserved 84 seconds of surveillance footage in response a request to preserve footage or photos that ?depict the subject slip and fall accident? and where the remainder of the footage had been automatically overwritten before plaintiff requested broader preservation; court reasoned that: ?While it may have been a better practice to preserve any footage of the area from any camera for a period before and after the accident, that was not the request made to defendants, and it would unfair to defendant to penalize it for not anticipating plaintiff’s additional requests.?

Nature of Case: Personal injury / slip and fall

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance footage

Tag:Motion for Sanctions