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Farrell v. Connetti Trailer Sales Inc.3/17/1999
anctions in response to the Farrells' spoliation: (1) barring the Farrells' introduction of all evidence of alleged defects to the motor home after Connetti performed the initial repair work, and thereafter, (2) granting defendants' motion to dismiss. Preclusion of all post-Connetti-repairs evidence relating to the Farrells' defective-repair claims was unwarranted, we conclude, because defendants introduced no evidence of bad faith or willful destruction of this evidence. Given the Farrells' allegations that defendants had botched several previous attempts to repair the vehicle, their denial of defendants' request for them to transfer possession of their motor home to defendants for an indeterminate period of time so that defendants could perform further inspections and repairs as needed was not so arbitrary and unreasonable as to warrant preclusion of all defective-repair evidence. Moreover, after the Farrells refused Fleetwood's request to take possession of their motor home so that defendants could perform an in-house inspection and any necessary repairs, defendants never attempted to conduct an on-site or field inspection of the motor home without removing the vehicle from the Farrells' possession. Indeed, defendants never requested that the Farrells permit their agents to examine and/or to inspect the motor home wherever it may have been located before the Farrells arranged for the bank's repossession of the vehicle. Thus, although the Farrells told defendants that they intended to allow the bank to repossess the motor home and that they would not bring the vehicle to defendants' service center or allow defendants to do so, defendants did not request, nor did the Farrells deprive them of, an opportunity to inspect the motor home in the field or at the vehicle's location before the bank repossessed it.
Therefore, we are of the opinion that the trial Justice should not have gone so far as to preclude the Farrells from introducing all evidence of the alleged defective repairs to the motor home after the vehicle left Connetti. The defendants' agents and other repair and servicing personnel did have the opportunity to inspect and/or repair the vehicle on several occasions thereafter, and the records from these occasions -- as well as the observations of those persons who attempted to repair the vehicle -- would have been relevant and material to the alleged defective repair work at issue and should not have been peremptorily excluded from evidence merely because the Farrells failed to preserve the motor home for inspection when they decided to file this lawsuit.
For these reasons, we reverse and remand this case for a new trial. The court shall allow the Farrells to introduce evidence of defective repairs and permit the defendants to rebut this evidence as best they can. Moreover, the court shall instruct the jury that, because of the Farrells' conduct causing the motor home's unavailability to the defendants for inspections at their designated facilities both before and after they filed this action, the jury can infer that if the defendants had been allowed to conduct such an inspection, then they would have discovered evidence indicating that the repairs to the vehicle were not defective. In other words, the Court shall limit the remedy for the Farrells' spoliation of evidence to a jury instruction advising the jury that, based upon the Farrells' conduct in arranging for the motor home to be unavailable for the defendants to conduct an inspection of the alleged defective repairs at one of their service centers or at other designated facilities, it can draw an adverse inference against the Farrells concerning the supposedly defective repair work. The jury shall be told that such an adverse inference
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