Blog Entries tagged 'Case Law Update'

In Case You Missed It: Court Demands Parties Answer Questions About Spoliation

james.crane@altep.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:00:00 +0100

The Northern District Court of California found a "troubling picture" when trying to understand how documents were possibly destroyed by a third-party defendant Taishan in Dong Ah Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. v. Glasforms, Inc., a breach of contract case.

Even after months of discovery, testimony of Taishan's 30(b)(6) witnesses, and court ordered search and pr [...]

In Case You Missed It: Adverse Inference Instruction in CA Dist Ct

james.crane@altep.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:00:00 +0100

In Keithley v. Home Store .com, Inc., a patent infringement case in the Northern District Court of California, the magistrate judge recommended that the District Court give an adverse inference instruction to the jury due to defendants' discovery misconduct described as "among the most egregious" she'd ever seen.

The bad discovery conduct included:

False or misleading statements to the plaintiffsMaterial misstatements to the courtNo litigation [...]

In Case You Missed It: LotusNotes and Accessibility

james.crane@altep.com — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:00:00 +0100

In Parkdale Am., L.L.C. v. Travelers Cas. and Sur. Co. of Am., Inc. (2007 WL 4165247), the Western District Court in North Carolina decided that relevant emails in LotusNotes format should be produced despite Plaintiffs' objections that it would cost $20,000 to convert them to a searchable format.

The Court found that because the emails were from a key custodian, and the amount at stake dwarfed the cost of the discovery burden, Plaintiffs' objection bas [...]

Poetic Justice in Action

james.crane@altep.com — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0100

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I always enjoy when a judge provides entertainment in his opinion, either in the way of comedy, emotion, or just plain wit. In a recent case in the U.S. District Court of Washington, Judge Ronald Leighton granted a Motion for a More Definite Statement in a complaint alleging racketeering against GMAC Mortgage.

Judge Leighton was not impressed with the 465 page lawsuit and set out his conclusion in a limerick:

"Plain [...]

In Case You Missed It: Failure to Preserve and Produce E-mail Supports Adverse Inference Instruction

james.crane@altep.com — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:00:00 +0100

In Connor v. Sun Trust Bank, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia held that an adverse inference instruction is appropriate when an employer did not take the steps to properly preserve and produce an email relating to an FMLA claim by a former employee. The key players were the former employee, Connor, the defendant employer, Sun Trust, and the supervisor of the former employee. At issue in the case was a relevant February 12th email written by the [...]