Dish Network LLC. v. Jadoo TV, Inc.

Background

Dish Network brought a copyright-infringement action against Jadoo TV, Inc. and Sajid Sohail. It alleged that the defendants failed to preserve emails from Haseeb Shah, a former Jadoo TV employee and former defendant. Shah was later dismissed from the case for lack of personal jurisdiction, but Dish Network sought sanctions against the remaining defendants based on the missing emails.

Dish Network asserted that the defendants had not produced any emails from Shah’s Jadoo TV email account, although they had produced some emails forwarded to another account. Dish Network argued that the missing emails would have supported its allegations about Shah’s role and his relationship with the defendants. The defendants responded that they had produced all emails within their possession, custody, and control, had instructed employees to preserve documents, and had produced some of Shah’s emails.

Rule and analysis

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) governs sanctions for failing to preserve electronically stored information. The court explained that the information must have been relevant and subject to preservation, must have been lost because the party failed to take reasonable preservation steps, and must not be restorable or replaceable through additional discovery.

The court found that spoliation—the loss or destruction of potentially relevant evidence—had occurred. Shah’s emails were relevant and should have been preserved because the litigation could reasonably have been anticipated as early as 2016. Jadoo TV controlled its internal information systems and did not take reasonable preservation steps; its instruction to employees to preserve documents came only in May 2019, after the complaint was filed.

The court nevertheless found that Dish Network had not shown intentional destruction. The evidence supported negligence or possibly gross negligence, but it did not show that an individual purposefully deleted the emails to avoid litigation obligations. Under Rule 37(e)(2), the more severe sanctions requested by Dish Network—such as a mandatory adverse-inference instruction or default judgment—required proof of intent.

Because the court found non-intentional spoliation, it applied the less severe remedy that was no greater than necessary to address prejudice. It ordered a permissive adverse-inference instruction, consistent with California Civil Jury Instruction 204, allowing the jury to decide whether the destruction was intentional and whether the missing emails were unfavorable to the defendants.

Disposition

The court denied Dish Network’s request for default judgment or a mandatory adverse-inference instruction deeming certain facts established. It ordered a permissive adverse-inference jury instruction concerning the failure to preserve Shah’s emails. It also granted Dish Network’s request for $11,550.60 in reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in preparing the discovery letter. The order stated that it disposed of ECF No. 224.