Opinion ID: 1995369
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: from an as yet undetermined date in october 1978 to january 18, 1980

Text: The immediately preceding period was that beginning sometime in October 1978, when Dan Garrett and others began listening to and destroying Think Table tapes in anticipation of discovery requests in this and other pending litigation. [8] In Synanon I we declined to rule on the trial court's finding that the destroyed materials would have been fatal to Synanon's complaint. 503 A.2d at 1255. Nor do we rule on that issue here, because our reasoning does not require us to do so. While we recognize that the destruction of potentially discoverable materials may not always rise to the level of fraud represented by Synanon's deliberate deception of the trial court, it is indisputable that the calculated, carefully orchestrated, and wholesale nature of the destruction here, over a period of several years, was conduct constituting bad faith litigation tactics for the purpose of an attorneys' fee award. Synanon officials and attorneys, starting within three months after the complaint was filed, sought to corrupt the administration of justice by systematically destroying materials they thought subject to discovery. Regardless of the relevance of these materials to the substantive legal issues in this case, the cynicism of this behavior cannot be entirely extricated from the pattern of fraud perpetrated upon the trial court by Synanon. Such conduct was enough to completely taint Synanon's entire litigation strategy from the date on which the abuse actually began. As stated by the trial court, assuming arguendo that the initiation of this suit was one that was taken in good faith, within three months ... whatever good faith attended the opening of the litigation was massively submerged and transformed into a fraudulent litigation. Proceedings on defendants' motions for award of attorneys' fees, expenses and costs, transcript at 105-06 (Sept. 4, 1984). The award of bad faith attorneys' fees for all of the defendants' reasonable litigation expenses was therefore proper from the point in Octoberwhich date must be determined upon remand by the trial courtwhen Dan Garrett and his companions began destroying evidence in anticipation of prospective discovery requests.