Supreme Court Of Texas Provides “Much-Needed Clarity” To Texas Spoliation Jurisprudence
On July 3, the Supreme Court of Texas issued a significant opinion in Brookshire Brothers, Ltd. v. Jerry Aldridge, No. 10-0846 (Tex. 2014), that clarifies the standards governing the spoliation of evidence in Texas as well as the parameters of a trial court’s discretion to impose a remedy upon a finding of spoliation. The 6-3 decision includes a number of notable holdings, including that the “harsh remedy” of a spoliation instruction is not warranted in cases involving unintentional spoliation except in the “rare circumstance” where “the act of spoliation, although merely negligent, so prejudices the nonspoliating party that it is irreparably deprived of having any meaningful ability to present a claim or defense.” Sutherland’s Legal Alert of the opinion is available here.
