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Case shelved under Reasonableness
Plaintiffs’ Motion for e-discovery Sanction Goes Up in Smoke
Philmar Dairy, LLC v. Armstrong Farms
D.N.M. July 11, 2019
Why This Case Is Important
An often-forgotten threshold factor for spoliation sanctions is that litigation must be reasonably anticipated. In this case, this key factor was overlooked and not proven by the moving party leading to the rejection of their spoliation claim.
Overview:
In this breach of contract and fraud case surrounding a failed hay sale, the plaintiffs filed a motion for e-discovery sanctions against the defendants based on the loss of key evidence, cell phone photographs.
The plaintiffs contracted with the defendants to purchase hay. The defendants claimed that lightning caused a fire which destroyed some of the hay intended to be sold to plaintiff. As evidence of the fire, the defendants took cell phone pictures of the “smoldering, smoking embers.” When asked for the photos, the defendants said that the photos were gone about “five cell phones ago.”
Based on the loss of these photos, plaintiffs claim that defendants spoliated evidence by failing to preserve photographs of the smoking embers.
Ruling:
- Motion for Sanctions Dismissed. The plaintiffs failed to prove two key things in making their case for e-discovery sanctions: 1) The defendants “knew or should have know litigation was imminent,” 2) The defendant acted with the intent “to deprive Plaintiffs of the photos’ use in future litigation.”
- No Proof that Defendant Knew Litigation was Imminent. The plaintiffs contended that the alleged fire was sufficient to put the defendants on notice of litigation. The court stated that it’s unlikely for the duty to preserve to be triggered “without any interaction with a potential adversary” and in this case the plaintiffs did not provide any communications that the plaintiffs intended to sue the defendants before the photographs were lost.
- No Intent to Deprive Plaintiffs of the Photos. Plaintiffs presented no evidence showcasing that the defendants intentionally lost the photos in question. Based on this lack of evidence, the court could not impose a default judgement or adverse inference instruction.
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Legal Analysis
On Philmar Dairy, LLC v. Armstrong Farms
BY
David Cohen, Esq., Chair - E-Discovery Group, Reed Smith LLP
The court found no expectation of litigation when an alleged fire allegedly destroyed hay that defendant was contractually obligated to provide to plaintiff. A different judge might have reached a different conclusion given the defendant’s disclaimer of responsibility and failure to preserve the only photographic evidence of the alleged fire.
David's Bio
relevant resource
When it comes to preserving electronic information, just remember to be reasonable. See what reasonable means by reading this:
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FRCP & E-DISCOVERY: The Layman's Guide PDF
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