Telecom International America v. AT&T

Citation
Telecom Int'l America, Ltd. v. AT&T Corp., 189 F.R.D. 76, 81-82 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) (full-text).

Trial Court Proceedings
Defendant telephone service provider's incomplete response to a discovery request by the plaintiff reseller of long-distance "800" services for production of records relating to international calls recorded by provider's equipment, and the defendant's subsequent destruction of the records, was held to warrant sanctions in an action in which the plaintiff reseller asserted a claim for unlawful discrimination in violation of the Communications Act.

The court found that striking the defendant's answer and counterclaims would be excessive, as there was no evidence that the documents were destroyed deliberately in purposeful bad faith. Instead, the court ordered an evidentiary hearing to determine what inferences could be drawn from the missing evidence, and if such evidence would reasonably support a finding of discrimination, an appropriate inference would be available to reseller.