Compass Bank v. Morris Cerullo World Evangelism

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR EVIDENTIARY AND MONETARY SANCTIONS AGAINST PLAINTIFF

I. INTRODUCTION

A. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On March 17, 2015, Defendant Morris Cerullo World Evangelism (“Defendant”) filed a Motion for Evidentiary Sanctions against Plaintiff Compass Bank (“Plaintiff’). (Doc. No. 109.) Specifically, Defendant claims that Plaintiff engaged in spoliation of evidence by failing to preserve a recorded telephone call (“the subject call”) between Ms. Geraldine Gurley, Plaintiffs’ Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 30(b)(6) designee, and Mr. Jack Wilkinson, Plaintiffs former branch manager and defaulted Defendant to the instant lawsuit. (Doe. No. 109-1 at 5.) Defendant claims that' Plaintiff had a duty to preserve what it knew or should have known would be relevant evidence, and that Plaintiffs failure to preserve the recorded call amounts to willful spoliation of evidence. Id. Defendant seeks terminating sanctions against Plaintiff, or in the alternative, Defendant asks that the Court adopt an adverse inference instruction against Plaintiff, establishing that Mr. Wilkinson admitted to issuing the letter of credit at the center of this litigation. Id. at…