AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO. v. THYGESEN

Wyrick, J.:

¶1 The district court in this case sanctioned Honda Motor Company for "destroying evidence." The evidence-a computer program that Honda uses when designing new models of its vehicles 1 -had been deleted *1060 pursuant to a routine document-retention policy some 12 years prior to the accident that sparked this litigation. 2 The Plaintiff in the case wants the computer program so that his expert can use it to attempt to demonstrate that Honda could have designed a safer car. The computer program is expensive-between two and three million dollars according to Plaintiff-so he understandably…