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Supreme Court of Minnesota· 8/3/2011

Miller v. Lankow

Citations

  • 801 N.W.2d 120
  • 2011 Minn. LEXIS 457
  • 2011 WL 3300343

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • holding the totality of the circumstances are considered to determine whether the custodial party gave notice that was sufficient for the noncustodial parties to protect themselves
  • explaining that “the duty to preserve evidence must be tempered by allowing custodial parties to dispose of or remediate evidence when the situation reasonably requires it”
  • holding a custodial party with a legitimate need to destroy evidence may be absolved of a failure to preserve evidence by giving the other parties’ sufficient notice and a full and fair opportunity to inspect the evidence
  • explaining that this would force a party to choose between remediating damage to the home “at the risk that any action to recover damages will be fatally compromised for spoliation of evidence” or preserving evidence by doing nothing
  • holding the failure of the custodial party to provide further notice of the destruction should not deprive it of an otherwise valid claim or defense if the noncustodial party had sufficient knowledge to protect their interests but still failed to inspect the evidence
  • rejecting the lower court’s conclusion that “a party must provide actual notice of the nature and timing of any action that could lead to destruction of evidence” (cleaned up) (emphasis in original)

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Anderson, Paul

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

10 cases in this archive cite this case.

Cites

27 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Other cases named Miller v. Lankow

1 other CourtListener record shares this case name.

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.