While finding that the deletion of emails in a case was the result of “gross negligence,” a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, vacated sanctions imposed against a business for spoliation of evidence.

The panel on Thursday reversed Manhattan Commercial Division Justice Saliann Scarpulla's ruling in AJ Holdings Group v. IP Holdings, 600530/09, because the emails were all internal communications among the plaintiffs' principals and thus irrelevant to defenses asserted in the case alleging the plaintiffs had communicated a waiver and consent to the defendants.

“Because defendants can have only relied on communications they received from plaintiff to establish this defense, there is no sense in which the deleted internal emails of plaintiff would be relevant,” the unsigned opinion said.