CHICAGO (LN) — U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston denied a motion for Rule 37(e) sanctions in Tate v. FedEx Corporation on Tuesday, ruling that the preponderance of evidence does not support a finding that a dashcam existed on the truck that killed Tanicialle Brown in 2020.
The plaintiff, Tate, sought sanctions after defendants claimed no video footage existed from the January 2020 collision on I-90 in Rockford, Illinois. Tate argued the truck should have been equipped with a Lytx video event data recorder.
The court found that while contractual documents and FedEx safety checklists indicated the truck was supposed to have a camera, there was no physical evidence that one was actually installed. Although one witness testified he believed a camera was installed, the court found this testimony unpersuasive in light of the physical evidence.
"Despite that there should have been a camera, there is not a preponderance of evidence that there was a camera," Johnston wrote. "There is simply no evidence—physical or testimonial—that a camera was indeed installed on Powell's truck."
The judge pointed to accident reconstruction photos showing no visible damage to the windshield or signs of a dashcam ever being secured. He also noted that FedEx managers were surprised to learn footage was unavailable and that T1 Transport representatives gave inconsistent accounts of the truck's status.
Johnston rejected the theory that the driver, Douglas Powell, removed the camera, calling it "farfetched" to believe he could have dismantled a hardwired device and cleaned the interior of a totaled truck within minutes of the crash.
"Instead, the simpler inference and conclusion—that incompetence led to no dashcam being installed—is persuasive to the Court," Johnston wrote.
The order leaves open the question of whether the absence of the dashcam is relevant to the negligence claim, noting it does not bar Tate from introducing evidence of T1 Transport's "concerning behavior."
The motion [265] is denied.