Opinion ID: 150720
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence and Requested Instruction on Spoliation

Text: At trial, Booker cross-examined three hospital employees about their deletion of email correspondence concerning Booker. Wong, who became Booker's immediate supervisor in the fall of 2004, testified that shortly after he began working at the hospital, he was informed that Booker had filed an administrative complaint against the hospital and that it was possible he could become a defendant, although he did not know the subject matter of her claims. Wong further testified that he regularly deleted all of the emails in his sent and deleted email folders every thirty days, and did not do anything in particular to preserve emails concerning Booker. Paul Romary, the hospital's executive director, testified that he received a copy of Booker's December 2003 letter of complaint. He explained that he received a hundred emails a day, some of which he deleted, and made no special effort to preserve his emails concerning Booker. Barbara McLaughlin, an executive vice president of the hospital and Wong's supervisor beginning in December 2005, testified that she never deleted any emails concerning Booker. Prior to trial, Booker submitted a proposed jury instruction on the spoliation of evidence: If the evidence indicates that a party has destroyed records relevant to a pending lawsuit or that may be relevant to a lawsuit that could arise in the future, you may reasonably infer that the party probably did so because the records would harm its case. The non-destroying party need not have offered direct evidence of a cover-up for you to infer that the party who destroyed evidence did so because the records were unfavorable to its position or would harm its case. The court refused to give the requested instruction, and Booker recorded her objection at the precharge conference. In its order denying Booker's motion for a new trial, the court again rejected Booker's claim that the jury should have been given the spoliation instruction. The court reasoned that because Booker did not present any evidence at trial that Wong or defendants engaged in the deliberate spo[li]ation of evidence, no instruction on an adverse inference was merited. Indeed, such an instruction would have been misleading and prejudicial to defendants.