On November 14, 2023, the First Department issued a decision in National Convention Servs., LLC v. FB Intl., Inc., 2023 NY Slip Op. 05692, holding that a spoliation claim failed for lack of a culpable state of mind, explaining:
It was unrefuted that National Convention Services, LLC (NCS) was unable to provide a detailed list of documents and information that were lost due to Superstorm Sandy, as the boxes containing documents that were placed in basement storage, were wet, soiled, and unrecognizable. Moreover, the March 14, 2022, affidavit provided by NCS’s IT consultant established that the emails of certain former employees were located on an older email service that were populated to the employees’ personal computer. Once the employees left employment, their files were put on a network server drive, some of which became corrupted due to an electrical outage. FB is therefore unable to demonstrate spoliation of evidence, since, at a minimum, defendant was unable to demonstrate a culpable state of mind and relevancy to the claims or defenses at issue.
(Internal citations omitted).