Opinion ID: 1388652
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Production of Emails

Text: A fifth issue the district court cited as a basis for its dismissal order involved a particular email and attached document that Barazi sent to one of Defendants' employees. During discovery, it became apparent that the parties were disputing when and whether Plaintiffs or Defendants had inserted certain language or numbers in the draft Agreement. The email and attachment were relevant to answering this question. Defendants claimed that they possessed multiple copies of the emailed document containing subsequent edits and changes but that their employee had not retained a copy of the original document as sent from Barazi. Similarly, Plaintiffs claimed to possess multiple subsequent copies, but no copy of the original document as sent to Defendants' employee. Defendants sought the original email from Barazi in discovery. Barazi claimed to have sent the email from a public computer using a Yahoo! account that did not retain files long enough to cover the dates in question. Barazi could not remember the exact location of the public computer. Counsel for Plaintiffs indicated Barazi may have sent the email from an unidentified internet café in Chicago, but Barazi failed to confirm this assertion. Defendants urged the court to disbelieve Barazi.