Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc.

Full title: THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SUDAN, REV. MATTHEW MATHIAN DEANG, REV. JAMES…

Court: United States District Court, S.D. New York

Date published: Aug 19, 2005

No. 01 Civ. 9882 (DLC) (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 19, 2005)

Opinion

01 Civ. 9882 (DLC).

August 19, 2005

ORDER

DENISE COTE, District Judge

Having considered the plaintiffs' motion for discovery sanctions pursuant to Rule 37(b) (2), Fed.R.Civ.P., pertaining to the destruction of notebooks of James W. Buckee, the Chief Executive Officer of defendant Talisman Energy, Inc., this Court finds that the plaintiffs have failed to establish that the records were "destroyed with a culpable state of mind,"Residential Funding Corp. v. DeGeorge Fin. Corp., 306 F.3d 99, 107 (2d Cir. 2002). The plaintiffs have also failed to establish that the unavailable notebooks are "relevant" to the plaintiffs' claims, id. at 109, given the likelihood that any information contained in the notebooks is replicated in other documents already produced in discovery. The adverse inference sanctions requested by the plaintiffs are therefore inappropriate. Accordingly, it is hereby

ORDERED that the plaintiffs' motion for discovery sanctions pursuant to Rule 37(b) (2), Fed.R.Civ.P., is denied. The parties shall bear their own costs with respect to this motion.

SO ORDERED.