No tire, no summary judgment

After an accident involving a failed tire, the remains of the tire were transported to the defendant’s trucking facility, after which they vanished. The Fifth Circuit held that the tire’s disappearance created a jury question about bad faith based on “the following circumstantial evidence:”

Prime destroyed the most crucial piece of evidence just weeks after learning that its tire may have caused a car accident; Prime cannot explain why it transported the tire to its Salt Lake facility or what happened to the tire following the accident; and Prime cannot demonstrate it had any formal preservation or retention policy for its equipment, like tires, that may have caused an injury. These circumstances create a fact question on bad faith, necessitating a jury determination.

Van Winkle v. Rogers, No. 22-30638 (Sept. 15, 2023).