United States Eighth Circuit

The sanction of an adverse inference instruction regarding spoliation of evidence was justified because defendant knew that the voice tapes were important in any litigation and because it destroyed some of the track records after the suit was commenced. District court erred, however, in denying defendant any opportunity to offer a reasonable rebuttal to the inference.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/05/2004
• Published 01/05/2004

Judges

• HANSEN, Circuit Judge., Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, HANSEN and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant was Scott H. Tucker, Little Rock, AR. Additional attorneys appearing on the brief were William H. Sutton, Robert S. Shafer and Joseph P. McKay.


• For Appellees:
  
• Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee was Robert L. Pottroff, Manhattan, KS. Additional attorneys appearing on the brief were Norbert C. Marek, Jr. and B. Michael Easley.