SINCLAIR v. CAMBRIA COUNTY et al
Filing
39
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER granting 28 Motion for Sanctions. Accordingly, all attorney's fees and costs associated with this Motion-including those that Defendants incurred in obtaining the deleted ESI, filing the instant Motion for Sanctio ns, and appearing for oral argument before this Court-are assessed to Plaintiff Tammy Sinclair. The Court FURTHER ORDERS Defendants to file via CM/ECF a document setting forth its itemized attorney's fees and costs related to the instant Motion for Sanctions on or before October 12, 2018. Plaintiff may file objections to this itemization on or before October 22, 2018, and as more fully stated in said Memorandum Opinion and Order. Signed by Judge Kim R. Gibson on 9/28/2018. (dlg)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
TAMMY SINCLAIR,
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Case No. 3:17-cv-149
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Plaintiff,
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JUDGE KIM R. GIBSON
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v.
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CAMBRIA COUNTY; WARDEN
CHRISTAIN SMITH; and DEPUTY
WARDEN WILLIAM PATTERSON,
)
)
)
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Defendants.
)
)
MEMORANDUM OPINION
I.
Introduction
Before the Court is Defendants' Motion for Sanctions (ECF No. 28) under Federal Rule of
Civil Procedure 37(e). The Motion is fully briefed and is ripe for disposition. (See ECF Nos. 28,
31, 36.) The parties appeared in front of this Court for oral argument on this motion on Thursday,
September 20, 2018.
(See ECF No. 38.) For the reasons stated below, the Court GRANTS
Defendants' Motion for Sanctions and ORDERS Plaintiff Tammy Sinclair ("Sinclair") to pay
reasonable attorney's fees and costs that Defendants incurred as a result of Sinclair's conduct.
II.
Background
This case arises out of Sinclair's employment as a counselor at the Cambria County
Prison. Sinclair alleges that Defendants discriminated against her by failing to promote her
because of her age and gender. For a more thorough explanation of the underlying facts of this
case, see Sinclair's Complaint (ECF No. 1) and Defendants' Answer (ECF No. 8).
The instant Motion for Sanctions (ECF No. 28) sterns from events that took place during
and after Sinclair's deposition on March 8, 2018. (See ECF No. 28 'Il'Il 2-3.) At Sinclair's deposition,
Defendants' counsel asked Sinclair who she communicated with to prepare for her deposition.
(ECF No. 28-1 at 4.) 1 Sinclair testified that she reached out to a number of her former co-workers
at the Cambria County Prison via text message before her deposition. (Id. at 4-8.) 2 Sinclair
testified that she texted her former co-workers because she "wanted to know what they thought
of [her] as a supervisor." (Id. at 7.)3 During the deposition, Defendants' counsel noted that she
planned to submit a discovery request to obtain copies of the text messages between Sinclair and
her former co-workers. (Id.) 4
On March 18, 2018, Defendants sent Sinclair a request for production of documents
seeking "any and all communications, including text messages ... between Plaintiff and any
current or former employee of Cambria County or Cambria County Prison." (ECF No. 28 'Il 7.)
On July 3, 2018, Sinclair's counsel notified Defendants that she could not obtain the text messages
sought in Defendants' request for production because the messages were deleted from Sinclair's
phone. (Id. 'Il 8.)
After notifying Defendants' counsel that the text messages were deleted, Sinclair's counsel
obtained phone company records listing text messages and calls to and from Sinclair's phone
Deposition transcript at 14:1-15.
Deposition transcript at 14-34. See deposition transcript at 14 (Q. "Did you speak with Scott Deyarmin
regarding the deposition?" A. "Yes."); 17 (Q. "Did you have any conversation with Christina Abrams last
week?" A. "Yes, I did."); 26 (Q. "Did you text anybody else about your deposition today?" A. "Yes, I
did." Q. "Who was that?" A. "There were several people that I texted." Q. "Who?" A. "Candy Mowery,
Sandy Jones, Dale Beers, Abrams, Galen Feathers, Christine Yahnert.").
3 Deposition transcript at 28:3-8.
4 Deposition transcript at 25:20-25.
1
2
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during this timeframe. 5 (Id.
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