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Image courtesy of Elkus Manfredi
A Superior Court judge rejected a claim that emails and texts deleted by Boston developers Stephen and Adam Weiner prejudiced a lawsuit about a failed luxury condominium project at 1000 Boylston St. in the Back Bay.
The communications were recovered by the recipients, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Kenneth Salinger noted in rejecting Suffolk Construction’s motion for sanctions.
Attorneys for Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish last fall asked the court to sanction defendant Weiner Ventures in the $100 million civil suit, which stemmed from a failed joint venture between Suffolk and Weiner Ventures on the Massachusetts Turnpike air rights parcel 15 project.
After the project fell through in 2019, Suffolk filed suit against Weiner Ventures in Suffolk Superior Court, alleging “gross mismanagement.”
In a Jan. 6 ruling, Judge Kenneth Salinger said the Weiners had a duty to preserve evidence related to the dispute beginning on Oct. 1, 2019. That was the day Suffolk attorneys sent a letter warning that Suffolk “would be compelled to recover [their losses] through other mechanisms” if the business dispute wasn’t resolved by Oct. 5.
In the ruling, Judge Salinger said the Weiners “had an affirmative duty to preserve any evidence that could be relevant to this dispute” beginning on Oct. 1, 2019.
Adam Weiner bought a new cell phone Oct. 5 and performed a factory reset that deleted his account’s data, while Stephen Weiner testified that his customary practice is to delete all emails and texts.
But Salinger noted that all of the Weiners’ communications with their attorneys and other parties about the project have been recovered.
“That the Weiners did not keep their own copies of those communications has not materially prejudiced the plaintiffs,” the ruling states.
Salinger also instructed attorneys to make John Fish available for a deposition beginning Feb. 1, and for Stephen Weiner to be deposed by Feb. 28. The two sides now are scheduled to complete discovery in the case by April 3.
The two sides had already invested over $83 million in the project when it collapsed, according to court filings.
