Opinion ID: 2831413
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Development of Spoliation Law in Texas

Text: In Texas, spoliation is an evidentiary concept rather than a separate cause of action. Trevino, 969 S.W.2d at 952. In declining to recognize spoliation as an independent tort in Trevino, we acknowledged that courts must have “adequate measures to ensure that it does not improperly impair a litigant’s rights.” Id. at 953. Thus, when evidence is lost, altered, or destroyed, trial courts have the discretion to impose an appropriate remedy so that the parties are restored to a rough approximation of what their positions would have been were the evidence available. Wal-Mart Stores, 106 S.W.3d at 721. As discussed further below, Texas courts necessarily enjoy wide latitude in remedying acts of discovery abuse, including evidence spoliation. Trevino, 969 S.W.2d at 953. Neither the Texas Rules of Evidence nor the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure specifically address spoliation. However, this Court recognized the concept as early as 1852, when we adopted the principle that all things are presumed against the wrongdoer; this is known as the spoliation presumption. See Cheatham v. Riddle, 8 Tex. 162, 167 (1852) (citation omitted) (stating that “[e]verything is to be presumed in odium spoliatoris”); see also Trevino, 969 S.W.2d at 952 (observing that “[e]vidence spoliation is not a new concept” and that “all things are presumed against a wrongdoer”). However, our guidance in this area has been limited to a small spattering of cases in the nineteenth century4 and several more in the last twenty years.5 4 See Curtis & Co. Mfg. v. Douglas, 15 S.W . 154, 155 (Tex. 1890) (noting that nonpreservation of evidence was “a circumstance to be considered by the jury”); Underwood v. Coolgrove, 59 Tex. 164, 170 (1883) (recognizing that the refusal to produce evidence in a party’s possession without explanation as to why it was not produced creates the 10 The courts of appeals have generally followed two basic frameworks in evaluating the