Q: Can u Sue a company because 1 of their employees destroyed video that would of shown someone being not guilty at a trial
loss prevention accuse my husband I'm trying to run him over and my husband was charged with assault with a deadly weapon out of the six videos that was given for evidence only one could be open for trial he also testified against my husband. my husband lawyer requested a retrial because of these videos being not able to be opened. 3 subpoenas to loss prevention to provide copies and only a few were given but not the one that would of shown that he lied on stand and that my husband would have been shown that he did not try to run this person over. another subpoena went out and a response was that he deleted the videos after so many days. This was against store policy the handbook and because of this my husband got 6 years with this charges but if he had the video that they requested he wouldn't be be convicted because the video would have shown his innocence we are in the process of an appeal but he wants to sue the store because of all this is it possible I know it's kind of confusin
A:
more info needed.
anyone can sue anyone for anything at any time.
the question is would you win AND will a lawyer take the case on a contingency, rather than an hourly.
my office would never do so and if a lawyer takes a case like that they would want the client to prevail on the criminal.
the best person to advise you would be your criminal lawyer who has all the facts.
A:
Most security systems automatically overwrite prior footage after a certain time, say two weeks. This happens automatically unless someone specifically saves footage. Loss prevention may or may not have had a duty to save its footage depending on whether it knew there was an active case that required it, and whether or not anyone told them about the case and to save it.
Now can you sue? Probably not. There is no tort for spoliation of evidence. If the conduct was intentional, and you can prove the actual innocence of your husband, then you could advance several intentional tort theories, as well as defamation. The odds of that aren't likely unless you win your appeal and your husband is acquitted on remand.
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