TRO – Page 6 – Electronic Discovery Law

Interbake Foods, LLC v. Tomaseillo, 461 F. Supp. 2d 943 (N.D. Iowa 2006)

Dec 01 2006

Key Insight: Court entered preliminary injunction enjoining former employee from violating his confidentiality agreement and ordering him to preserve “all information currently stored on his personal computers, personal digital assistant, mobile telephone, including any information stored on backup media for a period of 180 days”; order also required employee’s new employer to preserve all information currently stored on its computers relating in any way to its recruitment and employment of the defendant, or its ice cream sandwich wafer operations, during the pendency of the litigation

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Computer files containing sensitive product information

Computek Computer & Office Supplies, Inc. v. Walton, 156 S.W.3d 217 (Tex. App. 2005)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Permanent injunction that restrained defendant from “[r]emoving or destroying any files, or copies of files, including but not limited to Defendants’ computer or computer files” was overbroad because it enjoined activities defendant had a legal right to perform, such as deleting records and files that had nothing to do with the subject litigation

Nature of Case: Company sued former employee and his competing business for misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: Computer files

Advantacare Health Partners, LP v. Access IV, 2005 WL 1398641 (N.D. Cal. June 14, 2005) (Unpublished)

Dec 01 2005

Key Insight: Court denied individual defendant’s motion for reconsideration of default judgment entered against her and other defendants for continued destruction of evidence and continued possession of plaintiff’s proprietary files; although there was no evidence that individual defendant personally engaged in wrongful acts, she was not insulated by simply leaving compliance with court orders to other defendant; further, individual had numerous opportunities to disavow knowledge of misconduct or detail what efforts she personally took to comply with court orders but never did so

Nature of Case: Misapproriation of trade secrets and related torts

Electronic Data Involved: Proprietary information in electronic form

Ill. Tool Works, Inc. v. Metro Mark Prods., Ltd., 43 F. Supp. 2d 951 (N.D. Ill. 1999)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Defendant’s failure to preserve integrity of computer (dropping it repeatedly and apparent tampering, including disconnecting internal cables prior to court-ordered inspection) and failure to produce responsive electronic material warranted monetary sanctions

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive, deleted files, electronically stored invoices

US Greenfiber v. Brooks, 2002 WL 31834009 (W.D. La. Oct. 25, 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Preliminary injunction prohibiting former employee from using or disclosing any of employer’s business information and directing her to return employer’s property, equipment, documents and business and quality control records (including computer records)

Nature of Case: Employer sued former employee for breach of fiduciary duty and related torts

Electronic Data Involved: Emails and computer records

Kadant v. Seeley Machine, Inc., 244 F. Supp. 2d 19 (N.D.N.Y. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction granted; defendants enjoined from destroying, erasing or altering any of its computer-stored information that concerns any of plaintiff’s claims against them

Nature of Case: Trademark infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Computer data

Landmark Legal Found. v. EPA, 272 F. Supp. 2d 70 (D.D.C. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: EPA violated preliminary injunction that prohibited destruction of potentially responsive documents by reformatting hard drives and erasing or overwriting backup tapes containing potentially responsive email; EPA held in civil contempt and ordered to pay plaintiff’s reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred as a result of EPA’s contumacious conduct

Nature of Case: FOIA action

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drives and email stored on backup tapes

Madden v. Wyeth, 2003 WL 21443404 (N.D. Tex. Apr. 16, 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Confident that defense counsel would advise their clients of preservation duty and admonish them of dire consequences of violating same, court denied plaintiff’s motion to preserve evidence in absence of some proof that evidence may be lost or destroyed without it

Nature of Case: Drug products liability

Electronic Data Involved: Discoverable information in paper or electronic format

Vision Point of Sale, Inc. v. Haas, 2004 WL 5326424 (Ill. Cir. Ct. Sept. 27, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court provided direction to parties for implementing injunction, ordering among other things: (1) defendant to obtain new computers of its choice and at its expense to replace all existing computers and servers; (2) defendant to choose which files would be transferred to new computers; (3) plaintiff?s expert to observe copying and transfer, and examine new computers to confirm they do not contain plaintiff?s data; (4) after transfer, defendant?s old computers to be stored and kept available for forensic discovery, the cost of which would be borne 75% by defendant and 25% by plaintiff, except that plaintiff?s expert fees to date to be divided evenly between plaintiff and defendant

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of proprietary information

Electronic Data Involved: 30 computers and 2 servers of defendant

MPCT Solutions Corp. v. Methe, 1999 WL 495115 (N.D. Ill. July 2, 1999)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Sanctions in form of preliminary injunction preventing defendant from contacting MPCT clients granted, after defendant violated preservation order by deleting documents from laptop and defragmenting hard drive, thus preventing the recovery of deleted data

Nature of Case: Enforcement of non-competition agreement

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents stored on laptop

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