Yesterday I took the deposition of the Defendant truck driver in a crash that occurred on North Point Road near its intersection with Quail Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland. My client suffered permanent injuries to her left hand (she is left-hand dominant) in the accident.
The Case
This is a classic right turn tractor-trailer truck wreck case. To make a right turn in the tractor-trailer, the Defendant truck driver needed to use two lanes of traffic. I think it is also incumbent upon the Defendant to make sure no one is coming when he makes that right turn, although this requires waiting for a moment while checking his rearview mirrors. Here, the truck driver made a quick right-hand turn into my client, who was apparently in one of his blind spots.
Now, onto the subject of this blog. During his deposition, the truck driver told me he keeps a log of the driving he does in his tractor-trailer. Motor Carrier Safety Regulations regulate the permitted hours a truck driver can be on the road and require the driver to keep a log of his or her trips. Reviewing this log is helpful in establishing liability, primarily to determine whether the truck driver was in a hurry or the likelihood that fatigue was a factor in the crash. When I asked, he said that they had destroyed the log.
Here, when the trucking company destroyed the log, they knew of the potential litigation. But they destroyed the log, anyway. Why? Who knows? It could have been an innocent mistake, or they could have been hiding something. We will never know. What happens at trial in Maryland in this situation?
The Law
Naturally, as lawyers, we use a Latin expression to address this problem: omnia praesumuntur contra spoliatem, which means “all things are presumed against the spoliator.” Maryland has adopted this maxim under the assumption that people do not destroy evidence that would be helpful to their case. Under Maryland law, when evidence is destroyed by a party who knows or should know, of the evidence’s relevance to a potential lawsuit, the aggrieved party’s attorney will ask the judge for a jury instruction that the destruction or alteration of evidence by a party gives rise to inferences or presumptions unfavorable to the spoliator. See Anderson v. Litzenberg, 115 Md. App. 549, 561-562 (1997).
How It Plays Out
In such a serious case, I do not think they will contest liability because they will lose credibility on their damages arguments if they do. But, if the defendant does not concede liability, I think their failure to keep this log will probably inflame the jury and lead to a higher damage award.
2019 Update: This case settled. I think the case settled for a lot more than it would have if we had not pushed hard on the spoliation issue.