On March 29, Richmond, Va., federal district court judge Robert Payne sanctioned SunTrust’s mortgage division and criticized the bank’s lawyers at Reed Smith and Anderson Kill & Olick, concluding that a SunTrust employee willfully altered e-mails that in-house lawyers and senior management knew would likely be at the center of the litigation. SunTrust had discovered discrepancies in the e-mails–including one from Feb. 22, 2008, that was cited in the bank’s amended complaint–yet the bank made the “decision to bury its corporate head in the sand,” Judge Payne ruled.
“The consequences of ST’s failure to face up to its responsibility [for the employee's spoliation of evidence]…adversely and significantly affected and burdened this litigation and the judicial process,” Judge Payne wrote. “The handling of the matter by ST’s in-house counsel and its management that led to the citation of the February 22nd email in the [first amended complaint] and the aftermath thereof constituted an abuse of the litigation process.”
