*1 STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT 2021 CW 1599 NO. DEBRA AND RUSSELL MARBURY VERSUS MARCH 21, 2022
CRACKER BARRELL OLD COUNTRY INC. AND SAFETY STORE,
NATIONAL CASUALTY
CORPORATION Inc., Safety
In Re: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, National Casualty Corporation, Allied World National Assurance Company, and Megan Childers, applying for supervisory writs, 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, No. 668, 769. GUIDRY, HOLDRIDGE, AND CHUTZ, JJ.
BEFORE: 26, 2021 WRIT GRANTED. The trial court' s April ruling granting the plaintiffs' motion for adverse presumption is reversed. Spoliation of evidence generally refers to an intentional destruction of evidence for the purpose of depriving its use. BancorpSouth Bank v. Kleinpeter opposing parties of 2013-- 1396 ( La. App. 1st Cir. 10/ 1/ 14), 155 So. 3d Trace, L. L. C., 614, 639. The trial court abused its discretion in granting an adverse instruction on spoliation of evidence where plaintiffs, and Russell Marbury, have not presented sufficient Debra evidence that the defendants, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., Safety National Casualty Corporation, Allied World and Megan Childers ( hereinafter National Assurance Company, Cracker Barrel"), intentionally destroyed evidence to deprive them of its use and where Cracker Barrel provided adequate reasons for the loss of the evidence. See Id., 155 So. 3d at 639. Accordingly, plaintiffs' motion for instruction on spoliation of evidence and the adverse presumption is denied.
JMG
WRC Holdridge, J., concurs. From the writ application, it information for Justin Richardson has appears that the contact been located, and the last known address of the former employee, Kaitlin Jones, has been provided. Therefore, it is uncertain at this time as a spoliation instruction will be to whether required. For these reasons, I agree to reverse the decision of the trial court but would allow the issue to be revisited at a later date depending upon further discovery in this case.
COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT
DEPUTY CLE K OF COURT
FOR THE COURT