In eDiscovery, Spoliation does not require purposeful destruction of evidence

In a recent decision, Rosenthal Collins Group, LLC v. Trading Techs. Int’l, No. 05 C 4088, 2011 WL 722467 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 23, 2011), the court ordered the plaintiff to pay $1 million in sanctions, and ordered plaintiff’s counsel to pay “the costs and attorneys fees incurred in litigating this motion” because the plaintiff’s agent had modified metadata related to relevant source code and had wiped several relevant disks and devices prior to production. The court found plaintiff’s counsel had participated in “presenting misleading, false information, materially altered evidence and willful non-compliance with the Court’s orders.”

The plaintiff’s counsel did not dispute any of the allegations of misconduct but instead sought to distance itself from “its own agent, employed for the purposes of pursuing this litigation” and disavowed any “actual knowledge” of wrongdoing. RCG’s counsel similarly disavowed “any personal wrongdoing and any actual knowledge of any wrongdoing, while unequivocally distancing themselves and RCG from [the consultant].”

The court stated: “The imposition of sanctions, however, does not require actual knowledge, but gross negligence or recklessness, i.e., RCG knew or should have known. See Porche v. Oden, 2009 WL 500622, at *7 (N.D.Ill. Feb.27, 2009). Even if this Court were to accept that RCG had no actual knowledge of the evidence destruction and modification that occurred, RCG’s conduct still warrants the imposition of a default judgment. See, e.g., Grochicinski v. Schlossberg, 402 B.R. 825, 842-43 (N.D.Ill.2009) (finding bad faith sufficient to impose default judgment because “[e]ven if Schlossberg did not destroy the files himself, the bankruptcy court found that at the very least Schlossberg acted in ‘reckless disregard’ of his discovery obligations”).

The court went on to reason that “it strains credulity that RCG now claims it had no knowledge of anything [its consultant] was doing and he was just a ‘non-party fact witness’ for whom it bears no responsibility.” The court found that the record reflected that the consultant was “under RCG’s control and was its paid agent,” as evidenced by a myriad of facts laid out by the court.

Accordingly, finding that plaintiff and its counsel “acted in bad faith and with willful disregard for the rules of discovery and this Court’s orders,” the court entered default judgment in favor of defendant and dismissed the claims and defenses of plaintiff. The court also ordered plaintiff to pay $1 million in sanctions and, for their part in presenting “misleading, false information, materially altered evidence, and willful non-compliance with the Court’s orders,” ordered counsel to “pay the costs and fees incurred in litigating this motion.”

The managing attorneys on either side are responsible to the court to insure the discovery process was done correctly and in the timeframe expected by the court. The argument by RCG that they just didn’t know was seen by the Judge as not meeting their responsibilities. A spoliation finding does not need to be purposeful, grossly negligent will also do.