Motion for Sanctions – Page 74 – Electronic Discovery Law

Chen v. LW Restaurant, Inc., No. 10 CV 200 (ARR), 2011 WL 3420433 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 3, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court imposed sanctions, including preclusion of evidence/witnesses, an adverse inference instruction (upon plaintiffs? request) and payment of attorney?s costs and fees for defendant?s discovery violations, including repeated failure to produce evidence despite court orders, and ?loss? of a flash drive and its contents under circumstances which supported a finding of gross negligence or intentional spoliation; court invited plaintiffs to seek sanctions against defense counsel, too, for counsel?s egregious violations of his duties, including failure to issue a litigation hold, failure to be candid regarding the loss of evidence, and failure to ensure compliance with client?s discovery obligations, among others

Nature of Case: Employment litigation (wages)

Electronic Data Involved: Flash drive containing original payroll records for purpose of analyzing metadata

Stepnes v. Ritschel, 663 F.3d 952 (8th Cir. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where ?severe spoliation sanctions, such as an adverse inference instruction, are only appropriate upon a showing of bad faith,? the circuit court affirmed the lower court?s denial of plaintiff?s motion for spoliation sanctions where there was no evidence that the accused party intentionally destroyed the relevant video tape ?or acted with bad faith or gross negligence in respect to it?

Nature of Case: False arrest, defamation

Electronic Data Involved: Videotape

Denim N. Amer. Holdings, LLC v. Swift Textiles LLC, 816 F. Supp. 2d (M.D. Ga. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Despite noting that it was ?undisputed? that plaintiffs? witnesses did not modify their practice of ?deleting most emails within a short time of receiving them? even after they reasonably anticipated litigation, the court declined to impose an adverse inference where the record supported a finding that the witnesses ?destroyed the emails in the ordinary course of business unmotivated by any bad faith.?

Nature of Case: Fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Appleton Papers, Inc. v. George A. Whiting Paper Co., No. 08-C-16, 2011 WL 7005721 (E.D. Wis. Dec. 19. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court declined to impose spoliation sanctions for destruction of original microfiche where the destruction occurred in a somewhat unique situation ( the crate of microfiche was destroyed after becoming an ?orphan sitting in a warehouse? after being shipped back to England) and where ?nothing of value was lost? because the originals had been digitally copied

Electronic Data Involved: Original microfiche

In re Delta/AirTran Baggage Fee Antitrust Litig., 770 F. Supp. 2d 1299 (N.D. Ga. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Providing significant analysis of the issue of spoliation, court denied plaintiff?s motion for sanctions for defendant?s alleged failure to adequately preserve evidence where government?s investigation did not trigger a duty to preserve evidence as to the class action plaintiffs in this case and thus, no duty to preserve existed for purposes of the spoliation analysis; court also found that even where duty to preserve existed, plaintiffs also failed to establish prejudice resulting from the alleged failure to preserve and that defendant acted in bad faith by failing to prevent the loss of ESI pursuant to defendant?s usual document retention policies and the automatic functions of its server

Nature of Case: Class action related to alleged collusion in implementation baggage fees

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, ESI

Britton v. Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P., No. 4:11cv32-RH/WCS, 2011 WL 3236189 (N.D. Fla. June 8, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where defendant?s employee(s) were found to have allowed the loss of relevant video surveillance tape, despite repeated notification of its relevance and requests for preservation, and to have done so intentionally and in bad faith, court declined to enter default judgment but precluded defendant?s presentation of certain defenses and ordered payment of attorney?s costs and fees related to the motion for sanctions and payment of half of such costs and fees related to a prior motion in which defendant?s dishonesty regarding the existence of the at issue vide resulted in costs to the plaintiffs

Nature of Case: Claims arising from alleged wrongful detention of teens for shoplifting

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance

Lynn v. Gateway Unified School Dist., No. 2:10-CV-00981-JAM-CMK, 2011 WL 6260362 (E.D. Cal. Dec. 15, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where plaintiff unlawfully acquired emails from defendant?s computer system and attempted to utilize them to bolster his case, court granted defendant?s motion for sanctions and precluded plaintiff from ?using the emails, using their contents, or attempting to introduce any evidence about the contents of these emails at trial,? court also granted defendant?s motion to disqualify plaintiff?s counsel and counsel?s entire firm, where the court found counsel took possession of the emails despite knowing they were obtained illegally, among other ethical violations

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Unlawfully obtained emails

Peterson v. Seagate, 2011 WL 861488 (D. Minn. Jan 27, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where court found that plaintiffs? EEOC claims did not provide sufficient notice of the likelihood of a nationwide class action and where defendant destroyed the ESI of the former employees at issue in accordance with its usual document retention policies, court found that plaintiff had failed to show that information was destroyed in an effort to suppress the truth or that they had suffered any prejudice and declined to order sanctions

Nature of Case: Class action alleging age discrimination in employment

Electronic Data Involved: ESI of former employees

Jacobeit v. Rich Township H.S. Dist. 227, No. 09 CV 1924, 2011 WL 2039588 (N.D. Ill. May 25, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: For defendant?s delayed production of certain relevant documents, including emails, court granted plaintiff permission to re-depose certain witnesses but denied his request for evidentiary and exclusionary sanctions; court found defendant had breached its duty to preserve when it destroyed an audio tape of school board meeting pursuant to the District?s normal retention policy but that culpability and prejudice were not significant and ordered that plaintiff be allowed to question a certain deponent regarding the meeting, but no other sanctions; court found defendants breached duty of preservation as to certain emails, but that prejudice was minimal, and declined to allow forensic examination of the District?s computers, but ordered that defendants bear the reasonable costs of plaintiff?s motion and reply

Nature of Case: wrongful termination

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, audio tape of board meeting

English v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. 3:10-cv-00080-ECR-VPC, 2011 WL 3496092 (D. Nev. Aug. 10, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court denied motion for spoliation sanctions for loss of surveillance tape where duty to preserve arose upon request for the evidence-three months after the fall occurred- and where plaintiff did not show that defendant destroyed or lost the video and photographs with ?culpable intent or in a negligent and possibly reckless manner after Defendant?s duty to preserve the evidence arose.?

Nature of Case: Personal Injury

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance

Tag:Motion for Sanctions