Opinion ID: 2321828
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Re-Opening of the Section 225 Action and The Spoliation Opinion

Text: Unfortunately, that did not end the dispute. Two weeks after the entry of the stipulated final judgment, the Trump Group moved for relief from that judgment and to re-open the Section 225 proceeding. The Trump Group claimed that, after taking control of Trans-Resources, they discovered that Genger had destroyed documents relevant to the Section 225 action in violation of a document preservation order entered by the Court of Chancery on August 29, 2008 (the Status Quo Order). The Vice Chancellor granted the Trump Group's motion and re-opened the case. After conducting a trial in September 2009, the trial court concluded that Genger had violated, and was in contempt of, the Status Quo Order, because he had caused the deletion of files stored on his work computer at Trans-Resources. [16] The trial court further found that after deleting those computer files, Genger directed an employee to use special software that wiped the unallocated free space on both his computer's hard drive and on a Trans-Resources computer server. That made it impossible, even by use of computer forensic techniques, to recover any deleted files that were stored in those computers' unallocated free space. [17] As a sanction for those acts of spoliation, the Court of Chancery raised Genger's evidentiary burden by one level. That is, on any issue in which Genger had the burden of proof, he would have to satisfy that burden by clear and convincing evidence, rather than by a preponderance of the evidence. [18] Because Genger's conduct called his credibility into question, the trial court also ruled that Genger's uncorroborated testimony would not be sufficient to establish any material fact. [19] Finally, the trial court awarded the Trump Group $750,000 of the attorneys' fees they incurred to investigate and litigate Genger's spoliation of computer documents. [20] The parties later agreed that Genger would pay an additional $3.2 million fee to the Trump Group, an amount that the court also awarded. [21]