Quinby v. WestLB AG
United States District Court for the Southern District of Missouri
245 F.R.D. 94 (S.D.N.Y. 2006)
In her gender-discrimination suit against WestLB (defendant), Quinby (plaintiff) sought emails from current and former employees, requiring WestLB to restore several departed employees' emails from costly backup tapes (over $181,000 for restoration and search) since WestLB routinely deleted departing employees' accessible emails; one of the six affected former employees (Barron) had left before a prior settlement releasing WestLB from earlier claims, making his emails' relevance to this suit unforeseeable at the time WestLB deleted them, unlike the other five.
Whether, when electronic discovery places an undue burden or expense on the producing party, the court may shift the cost of production to the party who requested the electronic documents.