Beard Research, Inc. v. Kates’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Kates is a highly educated individual, having received a doctorate in chemistry, and a sophisticated businessman. Kates, ASDI, and ASG all were on notice by mid-2005 that electronic documents could be relevant to this action. Moreover, Kates admitted knowing that reformatting his laptop’s hard drive on numerous occasions could overwrite or delete data stored on the hard drive. Nevertheless, around November 2005, Kates intentionally deleted files from the laptop after ASG laid him off. Moreover, in or around September 2007, Mr. Elzufon, then lead counsel for Kates, ASDI, and ASG, explicitly told Kates not to destroy his laptop. Still, within a few months, Kates had his original hard drive replaced by an agent of ASDI and then lost the original drive. I find, therefore, that Kates knew of his duties to preserve evidence, including specifically the information on his laptop, but consciously disregarded those duties. Thus, an adverse inference is warranted based on the replacement and subsequent loss of the original hard drive.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beard Research, Inc. v. Kates (In re Kates)

2. “• his deletion of all ASG data and files from the original hard drive of the laptop in November 2005; • his installation of a new hard drive in the laptop in December 2007 and failure to account for the whereabouts of the original; and • his tampering with the laptop and deletion of certain files in July 2008, just before the Chancery Court ordered the State Court Defendants to produce it for the Plaintiffs’ inspection.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beard Research, Inc. v. Kates (In re Kates)

3. “[Djrawing an adverse inference is appropriate when an actor is under a duty to preserve evidence and takes part in the destruction of evidence while being consciously aware of a risk that he or she will cause or allow evidence to be spoiled by action or inaction and that risk would be deemed substantial and unjustifiable by a reasonable person.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beard Research, Inc. v. Kates (In re Kates)