Sekisui American Corp. v. Hart
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
945 F. Supp. 2d 494 (S.D.N.Y. 2013)
After Sekisui America Corp. (plaintiff) sent a Notice of Claim signaling intent to sue Richard Hart (defendant) over alleged FDA-compliance failures in a company it had purchased from him, Sekisui waited over 15 months to implement a litigation hold and another six months to notify its IT vendor of that hold, during which time it deleted electronically stored information, including emails, belonging to Hart and to an employee directly involved in the very FDA-compliance issues underlying the lawsuit. Hart sought sanctions in the form of an adverse-inference jury instruction, but the magistrate judge denied the request, finding Hart hadn't proven prejudice; Hart appealed.
Whether a party is entitled to an adverse-inference jury instruction based on the other party's destruction of evidence.