Decision affirming the order of a special referee on a motion for sanctions.  The referee recommended defendant’s answer to plaintiff’s claims be stricken for engaging in “willful and contumacious” conduct by failing to comply with the court’s discovery orders and that a default judgment be entered for plaintiff.

Over a two-year period, defendants failed to timely search for requested documents and failed to preserve material documents.  Although the case does not say how the parties got to this point, a forensic study of defendant’s computer revealed that what little production defendant had made was in bad faith because defendants did not produce all relevant ESI and “[m]any of the records that plaintiffs sought and were not provided with were material to plaintiffs' case, and were required to be maintained by defendants.”  Because defendant failed to comply with clearly explained discovery orders, the court affirmed the special referee’s order to strike defendant’s response to plaintiff’s claim and entered a default judgment against defendant on the issue of liability.