Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, long nicknamed the Godmother of e-discovery, wrote the pivotal Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, 217 F.R.D. 309 (S.D.N.Y. 2003) and The Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan, et al. v. Banc of America Securities, LLC., 2010 WL 184312, S.D.N.Y. (Jan. 15, 2010), two of the most influential opinions on electronic evidence spoliation. On August 15, she ruled on the issue for a third time, and it was not a charm for the plaintiff. Scheindlin hit Sekisui America Corp. and Sekisui Medical Co., with an adverse inference jury instruction for deleting emails in its ongoing breach of contract case, as well as costs and fees that will be determined at a later date.
In 2012, Sekisui sued two former executives — CEO Richard Hart and chair Marie Louise Trudel-Hart — of America Diagnostica, Inc., a medical diagnostic products manufacturer acquired by Sekisui in 2009. The plaintiffs allege that the Harts failed to comply with the terms of the stock purchasing agreement that controlled the sale.
