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CARMEN THOMPSON, et al. v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, et al., 219 F.R.D. 93


Summary

The city officials claimed, inter alia, that they should not be sanctioned for having destroyed or otherwise failed to preserve the e-mail records because the residents had a duty to seek a preservation order from the court, which they failed to do. The court initially held that the city officials were under a duty to preserve the e-mail records at least as early as the date the residents' lawsuit was filed. The court further held that Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(b)(2) sanctions against the city officials were appropriate because the residents were surprised by the city officials' discovery, long after the discovery cutoff deadline, of 80,000 e-mail records from certain city personnel, there was no effective way to cure the surprise, and the residents had no opportunity to review the e-mail records, digest them, and assess their impact on the case. The court finally held, inter alia, that the city officials were precluded from introducing at trial any of the 80,000 e-mail records that were ...