Timothy Comans v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company ( 2019 )

STATE OF LOUISIANA
COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT
TIMOTHY COMANS NO. 2019 CW 1173
VERSUS
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE
INSURANCE COMPANY,
TIMBERLINE TRADING OF DEC 0 6 2019
MISSOURI, LLC AND MICHAEL
GLOBE
In Re: Timberline Trading of Missouri, LLC, Timberline
Trading, Inc., Timberline Trading of Texas, LLC &
Dotson Logging of Missouri, LLC, applying for
supervisory writs, 19th Judicial District Court,
Parish of East Baton Rouge, No. 653, 413.
BEFORE: MCCLENDON, WELCH, AND HOLDRIDGE, JJ.
WRIT GRANTED. The district court' s August 19, 2019
judgment, ordering an adverse presumption against defendant,
Timberline Trading Missouri, LLC, is
of
hereby reversed.
Spoliation of evidence is an evidentiary doctrine that generally
refers to an intentional destruction of evidence for the purpose
of depriving opposing parties of its use. BancorpSouth Bank v.
Kleinpeter Trace, L. L. C., 2013- 1396 ( La. App. 1st Cir. 10/ 1/ 14),
155 So. 3d 614, 639. Further,
the obligation or duty to preserve
evidence arises from the foreseeability of the need for the
evidence in the future. Clavier Our
v.
Lady of the Lake
Hospital Inc., 2012- 0560 ( La. App. 1st Cir. 12/ 28/ 12), 112 So. 3d
881, 885. Plaintiff, Timothy Comans, has not presented
sufficient evidence to establish any drug test results were
intentionally destroyed, or that Timberline could foresee the
possibility of future litigation. Accordingly, the Motion for
Adverse Inference Due to Spoliation, filed by Comans, is denied.
PMc
JEW
GH
COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT
DEPUTY CL RK OF COURT
FOR THE COURT