Mueller v. Swift
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
2017 WL 3058027 (2017)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Taylor Swift (defendant) alleged that David Mueller (plaintiff) intentionally and inappropriately touched her buttocks. The following day, radio station KYGO, Mueller’s employer (defendant), called him in for a meeting to discuss the incident. Unbeknownst to KYGO, Mueller recorded the meeting. After the meeting, KYGO fired Mueller because it believed that Mueller had changed his story regarding the incident. Mueller contacted an attorney and later substantially edited the recording of the meeting. Mueller sent only the edited clips of the recording to his attorney. Mueller sued KYGO and Swift, alleging tortious interference with contractual relations. The defendants requested a copy of the entire recording of the meeting. Mueller testified that he spilled coffee on his laptop, breaking it, and that his external hard drive on which he also stored files stopped working at some point. Mueller thus did not produce the entire recording. The defendants requested that the court sanction Mueller for his spoliation of evidence, in the form of instructing the jury to infer that the entire recording would have been harmful to Mueller’s case.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Martinez, J.)
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