PA Court Rules Adverse Inference Based on Spoliation of Evidence Does Not Defeat Summary Judgment Without Proof of Negligence, Plaintiff Suffered Little Prejudice from Deletion of Video, and Deletion of Video Was Not a Bad Faith Act.

The plaintiff, an invitee, slipped and fell at the defendant-restaurant. At first, the plaintiff claimed that uneven floor tiles caused her to fall. She later claimed that her heel caught on the edge of a floor mat, though she did not know how this occurred or whether the edge of the mat was sticking up prior to her fall. 

At the time of the fall, the defendant maintained security cameras in the general area of the incident, and footage from the cameras was maintained for six weeks. Four months after the incident, the defendant received notice that the plaintiff intended to pursue a cause of action. The defendant had not retained footage of the incident. The defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted.

On appeal, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the plaintiff failed to come forward with prima facie evidence to support her claims. The court reasoned that there was no evidence to show that any alleged defect existed prior to the incident, that any alleged defect caused the fall, or that the defendant knew or should have known of a potentially harmful condition. 

The court further held that no spoliation of evidence sanction was warranted as deletion of footage of the incident was not an act of bad faith. Instead, the record established that the footage was deleted pursuant to the defendant policy. The court found the plaintiff suffered only a very low degree of prejudice as a result of the deleted footage since the plaintiff did not have any proof that the defendant was negligent. 

The Superior Court ruled that an “[a]n adverse inference based upon a deleted videotape cannot form the sole basis by which a party withstands summary judgment.” The Superior Court affirmed the order granting summary judgment. 

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