News Flash: Sanction Award in “Victor Stanley” of $1,049,850.04

Today Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm issued an attorney fee and cost award in Victor Stanley v. Creative Pipe against defendants in the amount of $1,049,850.04. I am pleased to be the first to release this news. Click here for a full copy of Judge Grimm’s 17-page Memorandum and Order. Case 8:06-cv-02662-MJG Document 448 Filed 01/24/11.

The $1,049,850.04 includes $901,553.00 for attorney fees and $148,297.04 for costs. The costs included bills by Guidance Software totaling $95,969.04 for computer forensic consultations, search and collection consultations, and restoration of deleted data.

This award was made to the plaintiff, Victor Stanley. I have written about this case many times, most recently at “Victor Stanley 2″ – Judge Grimm Imposes Prison Sanction for Spoliation by a Defendant Reminiscent of the Leader of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” Judge Grimm’s prior Order detailing the defendant’s bad faith destruction of evidence, both physical and electronic, is reported at Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc., 269 F.R.D. 497, 506 (D. Md. 2010).

Defendant, which here really means the owner of Creative Pipe, Inc., Mark Papas, had already paid $337,796.37. In Judge Grimm’s order today Mr. Papas was given 30-days to make payment of the balance of $712,053.67. It will be very interesting to see what happens if this payment is not timely paid.

Recall that this fee award is part of the sanctions imposed against the defendants for spoliation. This award represents the reasonable fees and costs incurred by plaintiff “associated with all discovery that would not have been undertaken but for Defendants’ spoliation, as well as the briefings and hearings regarding Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions.” (Judge Garbis quoted by Judge Grimm in the instant order at pg, 2 of 17, Id.)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Lawyers Duties, New Rules, Spoliation/Sanctions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.