Carter v. Muldoon et al

Filing 25

ORDER - that Plaintiff's Motion for Defendants to Properly Preserve and Catalog All Physical Evidence (Filing No. 22 ) is denied. Ordered by Magistrate Judge Michael D. Nelson. (KLF)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA
JOHN M. CARTER,
Plaintiff,

8:17CV319

vs.
ORDER
WILLIAM MULDOON, individually and in
his official capacity as Director of NLETC,
DAVE STOLZ, individually and in his official
capacity as Counsel for the NLETC,
NEBRASKA LAW ENFORCEMENT
TRAINING CENTER, and DOES 1-25
inclusive,
Defendants.
This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff’s Motion for Defendants to Properly Preserve
and Catalog All Physical Evidence (Filing No. 22). Plaintiff requests that the Court enter an
order directing the Defendants to “take immediate steps to properly preserve and fully catalog all
items of physical evidence,” including emails, telephone logs, text messages, recordings, etc.
(Filing No. 22 at p. 2).
Generally, “a defendant’s duty to preserve evidence with regard to a case is most often
triggered at the time the case is filed, unless the defendant before that time becomes aware of
facts from which it should reasonably know that evidence is to be preserved as relevant to future
litigation.” The Valspar Corp. v. Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, Inc., 2016 WL 6902459, at
*4 (D. Minn. Jan. 20, 2016)(citing In re Ethicon, Inc. Pelvic Repair Sys. Prod. Liab. Litig., 299
F.R.D. 502, 512 (S.D.W. Va. 2014). Plaintiff offers no explanation why a court order is
necessary at this time to enforce the defendants’ general duty to preserve relevant evidence upon
receiving notice of this litigation. Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion for Defendants to Properly Preserve and
Catalog All Physical Evidence (Filing No. 22) is denied.

Dated this 3rd day of January, 2018.
BY THE COURT:
s/ Michael D. Nelson
United States Magistrate Judge

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