Fourth Department – Spoliation: Buffalo Biodiesel v. Blue Bridge Financial

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New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

Spoliation

Deleted emails – Relevance

Buffalo Biodiesel v. Blue Bridge Financial

CA 23-00769

Appealed from Supreme Court, Erie County

Background: The plaintiff commenced an action asserting four causes of action arising from allegations that the defendant sent an email to a financial services company in which the defendant falsely characterized an ongoing legal dispute between the parties. Discovery demands were served by the defendant seeking copies of all communications between the plaintiff and the financial services company. In response, the plaintiff advised that it no longer had any such documents in its possession as it failed to issue a litigation hold and the emails were deleted during the pendency of the action by either the plaintiff or the company hosting its server. The plaintiff appealed from the grant of the defendant’s motion for spoliation sanctions.

Ruling: The Appellate Division affirmed. The court held that the plaintiff’s failure to suspend the routine deletion of its emails during the course of litigation constituted the grossly negligent spoliation of evidence. The court further noted that it is the peculiarity of spoliation cases that the very destruction of the evidence diminishes the ability of the deprived party to prove relevance directly.

David H. Tennant for the plaintiff-appellant; Daniel R. Lecours, of Harris Beach, for the defendant-respondent.

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