Coleman (Parent) Holdings, Inc. v. Morgan Stanley & Co.

Plaintiff moved for an adverse instruction inference and a motion to compel further discovery against Defendant due to Defendant’s history of noncompliance with discovery orders.

The Court granted Plaintiff’s motion for an adverse inference instruction because of Defendant’s long practice of not properly producing all necessary information, not properly stopping the 12 month automatic deletion of backup tapes, overwriting necessary emails, and improperly certifying compliance with discovery orders. The Court, however, denied Plaintiff’s motion to compel because the jury trial was quickly approaching and fact discovery in the litigation had already used an enormous amount of resources.