Watanabe, Michael J., United States Magistrate Judge
The court denied plaintiff’s motion for spoliation sanctions because plaintiff did not meet its burden of proving that 1) relevant evidence ever existed on his company-issued laptop or 2) that defendant failed to meet its preservation obligations.
Plaintiff brought this action claiming discrimination and retaliatory discharge. Plaintiff alleged that certain discriminatory instant messages made by his supervisor were on the plaintiff’s company-issued laptop hard drive. Defendant prevented plaintiff from accessing his company-issued laptop after plaintiff was terminated, and wiped plaintiff’s laptop in accordance with its routine business practices.
Defendant argued that the plaintiff had no proof the alleged messages ever existed and pointed to the plaintiff’s own deposition testimony where the plaintiff stated he was “hoping you know, slurs should have been captured in some of those instant message conversations.” Defendant also informed the plaintiff that the defendant did not store instant messages on the plaintiff’s hard drive and thus it was impossible that he deleted any alleged messages.
The court agreed with defendant and denied the plaintiff’s motion because the plaintiff failed to produce any evidence that the alleged instant messages were stored on the plaintiff’s laptop hard drive.
v.
THE TRIZETTO GROUP, INC., Defendant
Counsel
Trocon Edward Williams, Benjamin Bain Howard & Cohen, LLC, Greenwood Village, CO, for Plaintiff.Erin Ashley Webber, Jordan Elizabeth Cornett, Littler Mendelson, PC, Denver, CO, for Defendant.