Gatto v. United Air Lines
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
2013 WL 1285285 (2013)
- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
Frank Gatto (plaintiff) sued United Air Lines, Inc. (United) (defendant) in federal court, seeking damages for injuries he suffered in an airport accident. United believed that Gatto’s Facebook posts would prove its contention that Gatto exaggerated the extent of his injuries. Gatto obeyed the court’s order to give United access to his Facebook account. A few days later, however, Gatto deactivated the account, and Facebook deleted the account’s contents before United could locate all the posts that might undercut Gatto’s case. It was unclear what motivated Gatto to close the account; nor was it clear whether Facebook deleted the account’s contents in accordance with its own retention policy for deactivated accounts or as a result of Gatto’s active intervention. United moved for a jury instruction on the adverse inferences the jury could draw from the spoliation of Gatto’s posts.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Mannion, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 806,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
