A dispute between a Philadelphia advertising firm and a competing agency newly created by several of the firm's former employees has, at the discovery stage, resulted in a U.S. magistrate judge's finding of spoliation of electronically stored evidence and the decision to make an assessment of compensatory sanctions against the start-up.
The deletion of relevant emails clearly constituted spoliation of evidence, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynne Sitarski of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in Stream Companies v. Windward Advertising, finding that the start-up agency, which is a defendant in the case, along with two of Stream Companies' former employees, had acted in bad faith.
