Spoliation of Evidence by Non-Parties
Spoliation of evidence means you “spoiled “the evidence in a case. Evidence can be an object, product, condition, documents, materials, electronic records -basically anything needed to prove the facts of a case. Spoiling can mean destroying it, throwing it away, losing it, failing to keep it secure or safe, allowing others to tamper with it or change it, or altering it, either intentionally or by accident or neglect. Up until recently, most Florida court decisions dealt with what happens when a party, whether plaintiff or defendant, commit this spoliation of evidence. A decision out of the 5th DCA addresses the decision where a non-party spoils evidence in a case. Shamrock-Shamrock Inc. v. Remark, 271 So. 2d 1200 (Fla. 5DCA 2019), involves a situation when the non-party witness owes a duty to preserve evidence for the litigation. In Shamrock, an individual that was a member of a city planning board had been an activist against a rezoning project in Daytona Beach before she […]