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Spoliation claim rejected where transit video was automatically overwritten before litigation was contemplated.
In a negligence jury trial arising from an alleged fall on a public transit bus, the plaintiffs sought to rely on the doctrine of spoliation after video footage from the bus surveillance system was overwritten pursuant to the transit authority’s standard 15‑hour retention policy.
The court considered whether the defendant intentionally destroyed relevant evidence in circumstances giving rise to a rebuttable presumption that the evidence would be unfavourable.
The evidence showed the footage was automatically overwritten under established policy before any notice of litigation and without authority for supervisors to download the footage absent police authorization.
The court held there was no factual foundation for intentional destruction of evidence related to contemplated litigation.
The issue of spoliation and any adverse inference was therefore removed from the jury.
