As previously summarized on this blog (here), the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered sanctions against the defendant for wiping the unallocated space on his company’s computer system, despite a court order prohibiting such destruction.  On appeal, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the sanctions, citing the defendant’s intentional, affirmative actions to destroy documents, and clarified that it did not “read the Court of Chancery’s Spoliation Opinion to hold that as a matter of routine document retention procedures, a computer hard drive’s unallocated free space must always be preserved.”

Briefly refreshing your recollection: defendant Genger is a true “International Man of Mystery” who performed “sensitive tasks” related to national security for his government contacts in Israel.  Apparently, Mr. Genger maintained information related to those contacts on his company’s computer system.  In the course of the underlying litigation, he sought to segregate those very personal files from those relevant to the action and recruited legal assistance in doing so.  After the fact, however, upon learning that the unallocated space (which was not preserved for litigation during the segregation efforts) may contain sensitive information, the defendant instructed his personal IT consultant to wipe the data.  At the time of the deletion, however, the defendant was subject to the court’s Status Quo Order which specifically prohibited the destruction of “Company-related” materials.  Moreover, based on evidence that documents expected to be contained on the defendant’s computers were not found there, the court concluded that relevant information had likely been deleted by the defendant and was then permanently destroyed when the unallocated space was wiped.  Accordingly, the court found that the defendant was in contempt and that intentional spoliation had occurred.  Sanctions were ordered, including payment of attorney’s fees and expenses related to the sanctions motions.  In the Final Judgment, the court awarded $3.2 million in fees, an amount that was agreed upon by the parties.  The defendant appealed.  On appeal, the Supreme Court of Delaware upheld the sanctions imposed by the Court of Chancery.

via Court Upholds Sanctions against “International Man of Mystery” citing Affirmative Actions to Destroy Relevant Documents in Unallocated Space : Electronic Discovery Law.