Opinion ID: 1376259
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Viability of a Tort for Negligent Spoliation by a Third Party

Text: We answer the second certified question in the affirmative and hold that West Virginia recognizes spoliation of evidence as a stand-alone tort when the spoliation is the result of the negligence of a third party, and the third party had a special duty to preserve the evidence. Unlike a party to a civil action, a third party spoliator is not subject to an adverse inference instruction or discovery sanctions. Thus, when a third party destroys evidence, the party who is injured by the spoliation does not have the benefit of existing remedies. Such a result conflicts with our policy of providing a remedy for every wrong and compensating victims of tortious conduct. Accordingly, we believe that the negligent spoliation of evidence by a third party ought to be actionable in certain circumstances. It is generally agreed that recognizing a tort of negligent spoliation against a third party is problematic absent some type of affirmative duty to preserve the evidence. Under our tort law, [i]n order to establish a prima facie case of negligence in West Virginia, it must be shown that the defendant has been guilty of some act or omission in violation of a duty owed to the plaintiff. No action for negligence will lie without a duty broken. Syllabus Point 1, Parsley v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 167 W.Va. 866, 280 S.E.2d 703 (1981). However, there is no general duty to preserve evidence[.] Smith v. Atkinson, 771 So.2d 429, 433 (Ala.2000). An additional problem arises where the destroyed evidence is the property of the alleged third-party spoliator. [9] A property owner normally has the right to control and dispose of his property as he sees fit. The owner of the property may legitimately question what right a plaintiff has to direct control over such property. Oliver v. Stimson Lumber Co., 297 Mont. 336, 345, 993 P.2d 11, 18 (1999). As noted by one commentator: [I]n situations in which the evidence is owned by the third party, individual autonomy is a heavy factor in favor of the spoliator in negligent spoliation by a third party. According to the individual autonomy theory, tort liability for spoliation interferes with individual property rights. Tort liability against a third party in negligent spoliation would prohibit a third party from destroying or altering evidence, which the third party owns, for a justifiable reason such as safety concerns or a desire to control the costs of preservation. Wilhoit, Spoliation Of Evidence: The Viability Of Four Emerging Torts, 46 UCLA L.Rev. at 671 (footnote omitted). See also Coleman v. Eddy Potash, Inc., 120 N.M. 645, 651, 905 P.2d 185, 191 (N.M.1995), overruled on other grounds by Delgado v. Phelps Dodge Chino, Inc., 131 N.M. 272, 34 P.3d 1148 (N.M.2001), (We hold that in the absence of [certain enumerated circumstances] a property owner has no duty to preserve or safeguard his or her property for the benefit of other individuals in a potential lawsuit.); Koplin v. Rosel Well Perforators, Inc., 241 Kan. 206, 208-209, 734 P.2d 1177, 1179 (1987) (When negligence is the basis of the suit alleging an economic injury resulting from the destruction of evidence, a duty on behalf of the defendant arising from the relationship between the parties or some other special circumstance must exist in order for the cause of action to survive.). Some courts, however, have recognized a cause of action against a third party who negligently destroys evidence when the third party had a special duty to preserve the evidence. For example, in Boyd v. Travelers Ins. Co., 166 Ill.2d 188, 209 Ill.Dec. 727, 652 N.E.2d 267 (1995), the Supreme Court of Illinois declined to create a new tort of spoliation but found that an action for negligent spoliation could be stated under existing negligence law. The court held: The general rule is that there is no duty to preserve evidence; however, a duty to preserve evidence may arise through an agreement, a contract, a statute or another special circumstance. Moreover, a defendant may voluntarily assume a duty by affirmative conduct. In any of the foregoing instances, a defendant owes a duty of due care to preserve evidence if a reasonable person in the defendant's position should have foreseen that the evidence was material to a potential civil action. Boyd, 166 Ill.2d at 195, 209 Ill.Dec. at 730-31, 652 N.E.2d at 270-71 (citations omitted). Likewise, in Holmes v. Amerex Rent-A-Car, 710 A.2d 846 (D.C.1998), the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recognized a spoliation tort and applied it to third parties. The court explained: There is no general duty in the common law to preserve evidence in a third-party spoliation situation. Absent some special relationship or duty rising by reason of an agreement, contract, statute, or other special circumstance, the general rule is that there is no duty to preserve possible evidence for another party to aid that other party in some future legal action against a third party. Koplin v. Rosel Well Perforators, 241 Kan. 206, 734 P.2d 1177, 1179 (1987). For a spoliation claim to succeed in negligence, therefore, the plaintiff must establish the existence of such a special relationship that creates a duty to preserve the evidence for use in the future litigation. Holmes, 710 A.2d at 849. We agree with these courts and hold that a duty to preserve evidence for a pending or potential civil action may arise in a third party to a civil action through a contract, agreement, statute, administrative rule, voluntary assumption of duty by the third party, or other special circumstances. Various elements have been included in a negligent spoliation tort. In Oliver, 297 Mont. at 348, 993 P.2d at 19, the Supreme Court of Montana articulated the following elements: (1) existence of a potential civil action; (2) a legal or contractual duty to preserve evidence relevant to that action; (3) destruction of that evidence; (4) significant impairment of the ability to prove the potential civil action; (5) a causal connection between the destruction of the evidence and the inability to prove the lawsuit; (6) a significant possibility of success of the potential civil action if the evidence were available; and (7) damages. (Citations omitted). The Supreme Court of Alabama, in Smith v. Atkinson, 771 So.2d 429, 432-33 (Ala.2000), explained: In addition to proving a duty, a breach, proximate cause, and damage, the plaintiff in a third-party spoliation case must also show: (1) that the defendant spoliator had actual knowledge of pending or potential litigation; (2) that a duty was imposed upon the defendant through a voluntary undertaking, an agreement, or a specific request; and (3) that the missing evidence was vital to the plaintiff's pending or potential action. Once all three of these elements are established, there arises a rebuttable presumption that but for the fact of the spoliation of evidence the plaintiff would have recovered in the pending or potential litigation; the defendant must overcome that rebuttable presumption or else be liable for damages. Accordingly, we hold that the tort of negligent spoliation of evidence by a third party consists of the following elements: (1) the existence of a pending or potential civil action; (2) the alleged spoliator had actual knowledge of the pending or potential civil action; (3) a duty to preserve evidence arising from a contract, agreement, statute, administrative rule, voluntary assumption of duty, or other special circumstances; (4) spoliation of the evidence; (5) the spoliated evidence was vital to a party's ability to prevail in a pending or potential civil action; and (6) damages. Once the first five elements are established, there arises a rebuttable presumption that but for the fact of the spoliation of evidence, the party injured by the spoliation would have prevailed in the pending or potential litigation. The third-party spoliator must overcome the rebuttable presumption or else be liable for damages. We emphasize that a third party must have had actual knowledge of the pending or potential litigation. [A] third party's constructive notice of a pending or potential action is not sufficient to force upon the third party the duty to preserve evidence. Smith, 771 So.2d at 433 (citation omitted). In addition, Not every piece of lost or destroyed evidence should lead to a cause of action for negligent spoliation. Where the destruction or loss of evidence defeats any chance of the plaintiff's recovering in the underlying action, we conclude that the plaintiff deserves recourse for such a loss. Therefore, under a claim for negligent spoliation, the defendant's breach must be the proximate cause of the plaintiff's inability to file, or to win, the underlying lawsuit. Smith, 771 So.2d at 434. In proving the element of proximate cause, we adopt the reasoning of the court in Smith that, in order for a plaintiff to show proximate cause, the trier of fact must determine that the lost or destroyed evidence was so important to the plaintiff's claim in the underlying action that without that evidence the claim did not survive or would not have survived a motion for summary judgment.... Metropolitan argues that a plaintiff, in order to be able to file an action alleging spoliation of evidence against a third party, must first file an action pursuing the underlying cause of action and be denied a recovery in that underlying action. We disagree. If we use the summary-judgment standard as a guide, there will be no need for a plaintiff to waste valuable judicial resources by filing a futile complaint and risking sanctions for filing frivolous litigation. The plaintiff can rely upon either a copy of a judgment against him in an underlying action or upon a showing that, without the lost or destroyed evidence, a summary judgment would have been entered for the defendant in the underlying action. 771 So.2d at 434. Therefore, a plaintiff in a spoliation claim does not have to file an action in which the spoliated evidence would have been vital to proving or defending his or her case. Instead, he or she simply may show that without the spoliated evidence, a summary judgment would have been entered on behalf of the adverse party in the underlying action. The determination of damages in a claim for spoliation of evidence is generally considered to be a task fraught with uncertainty and speculation. In fact, a strong counterargument to compensation [in spoliation cases] is the inherent difficulty of proving the fact of injury in a spoliation suit. Levine, 104 W.Va.L.Rev. at 440 (footnote omitted). Courts have adopted a myriad of methods to assess damages. [10] In addressing the problem of damages, we are guided by the general rule in awarding damages [which] is to give compensation for pecuniary loss; that is, to put the plaintiff in the same position, so far as money can do it, as he would have been if ... the tort [had] not [been] committed. 5C Michie's Jurisprudence, Damages § 18, at 63 (1998) (footnote omitted). We believe that the approach utilized by the Alabama court in Smith would best achieve this result. There the court explained: under the [rebuttable presumption] approach we adopt today, the risk of a windfall to the plaintiff has been minimized. We decline to gauge damages on the plaintiff's probability of success on the merits. We conclude that without the spoliated evidence, the plaintiff's probability of success is too tenuous a measure to be consistently applied and that any attempt to apply it would constitute pure speculation. Therefore, in determining damages, we reject the use of probability of success as a benchmark, in favor of the use of compensatory damages that would have been awarded on the underlying cause of action, if the defendant cannot overcome the rebuttable presumption. Smith, 771 So.2d at 438. Therefore, if a spoliator cannot rebut the presumption that the injured party would have prevailed in the underlying litigation but for the spoliation, the spoliator must compensate the party injured by the spoliation for the loss suffered as a result of his or her failure to prevail in the underlying litigation. E.