OPINION & ORDER On March 15, 2017, plaintiff ComLab, Corp. (“ComLab”) commenced this breach of contract action against defendants Kal Tire and Kal Tire Mining Tire Group (collectively, “defendants” or “Kal Tire”). (See Compl., ECF No. 1.) Currently before the Court is Kal Tire’s motion for spoliation sanctions. (ECF No. 59.) Kal Tire alleges that ComLab fabricated, for litigation purposes, certain e-mails concerning payment due under the contract at issue. (Id.) ComLab denies that accusation, but also concedes that it cannot produce so-called “native” versions of the contested e-mails because of an alleged virus that affected ComLab President Matteo Deninno’s computer, resulting in his wiping or erasing its contents. (ECF No. 61.)The Court held an evidentiary hearing to resolve certain factual disputes relating to Kal Tire’s motion. For the reasons set forth below, the Court concludes that Kal Tire has proven that ComLab fabricated and spoliated evidence, that these acts were egregious, intentional and outrageous, and therefore GRANTS the motion for terminating sanctions.I. BACKGROUNDWhat follows is a brief recitation of the facts most relevant to resolution of the pending motion. The facts are undisputed unless otherwise noted.A. Underlying ActionAt its core, this is a relatively uncomplicated breach of contract action between ComLab, a New York information technology corporation, and Kal Tire, a Canadian tire partnership based in Vernon, British Columbia. The two individuals central to this dispute are Matteo Deninno (“Deninno”), ComLab’s President, and Alex Vitale (“Vitale”), the former Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Kal Tire.ComLab alleges that in August 2015, it executed a contract to provide twenty-four months of services for Kal Tire’s “MyMTG” intranet in exchange for a monthly fee of $20,000. It is undisputed that ComLab sent (and Kal Tire received) four invoices pursuant to that alleged agreement. It is further undisputed Kal Tire’s former Vice President of Sales and Marketing Alex Vitale (“Vitale”) caused three of those invoices to be paid. Kal Tire, however, has argued that: (1) it never executed any agreement with ComLab; (2) it never received any of the services ComLab claims to have provided for MyMTG; (3) it never approved payment of any invoices; and (4) there has been no breach.B. Allegations of Fabrication and SpoliationAs previously noted, it is undisputed that Kal Tire received four invoices pursuant to the alleged agreement. Currently at issue are sixteen additional invoices (for the period of December 2015 through March 2017) that ComLab produced during discovery (the “Contested Invoices”). These Contested Invoices would constitute highly relevant evidence of the existence of a contract between ComLab and Kal Tire — the very basis of ComLab’s claims in this case. Kal Tire, however, asserts that it never received the Contested Invoices and hotly disputes their authenticity. For these reasons, these Contested Invoices are central to the parties’ claims and defenses in this case. After the Contested Invoices were produced during discovery, on November 13, 2017, Kal Tire requested documents “sufficient to identify the date(s) when ComLab sent” each of the Contested Invoices, as well as a copy of the letters/e-mails of transmittal. (See Defs.’ Ltr. Dated May 5, 2018 (“ Defs.’ Sanctions Ltr.”) Ex. A at 13, ECF No. 59-1 (emphasis in original).) The “General Instructions” section of the document request included an instruction to “[p]roduce all [electronically stored information] in single-page.TIFF format, with native files, accompanying text files, and load files.” (Id. at 2.) ComLab responded to that request by producing thirteen hard copy e-mails that it alleges to have sent between December 2015 and October 2016 (the “Subject E-mails”). The Subject E-mails include:Four e-mails allegedly sent by Deninno to Caitlin Brothen (“Brothen”) between December 2015 and March 2016, each one attaching a monthly invoice;Seven e-mails allegedly sent by Deninno to Brothen between April 2016 and October 2016, each one attaching a monthly invoice; andTwo e-mails allegedly sent by Deninno to Brothen in September and October 2016 requesting payment on outstanding invoices.(See Decl. of Allan Heel (“Heel Decl.”), ECF No. 59-7.)In connection with its motion for sanctions, Kal Tire submitted a declaration from Allan Heel (“Heel”)1, who serves as Kal Tire’s Director of Platform and Productivity Technology Information Services. (See id.) Heel asserts that in November 3, 2015, Kal Tire enabled the “Litigation Hold” feature for Vitale and Brothen’s e-mail accounts, which “preserves every email that is sent to or from those accounts.”2 (Id.
