Texas Supreme Court Clarifies Spoliation Standards

On July 3, the Supreme Court provided an analytical framework for determining whether spoliation has occurred, and if so, what remedies are available. Brookshire Bros., Ltd. v. Aldridge, 2014 Tex. LEXIS 562 (Tex. July 3, 2014).

The case arose out of a slip and fall at a grocery store. The fall was captured by a surveillance camera that recorded in a continuous loop that, after approximately 30 days, recorded over prior events. The store retained only an eight–minute segment of the footage beginning just before the customer entered the store and ending just after the fall. When the customer sued and requested the entire day's worth of footage, the store could produce only the eight–minute segment.