The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:32:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png Court of Chancery Imposes Sanctions for Spoliation of Signal Messages – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Court of Chancery Imposes Sanctions for Spoliation of Signal Messages https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/07/01/court-of-chancery-imposes-sanctions-for-spoliation-of-signal-messages/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=court-of-chancery-imposes-sanctions-for-spoliation-of-signal-messages https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/07/01/court-of-chancery-imposes-sanctions-for-spoliation-of-signal-messages/#respond Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:30:08 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=182215?d=20260630155144EDT Posted by Mallory Tosch Hoggatt, Alan Goudiss, Jeffrey Hoschander, A&O Shearman, on Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Editor's Note:

Mallory Tosch Hoggatt, Alan Goudiss, and Jeffrey Hoschander are Partners at A&O Shearman. This post is based on an A&O Shearman memorandum by Ms. Tosch Hoggatt, Mr. Goudiss, Mr. Hoschander, Henessy Guerrero, and Jessie Donegan, and is part of the Delaware law series; links to other posts in the series are available here.

On May 26, 2026, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery imposed sanctions for the spoliation of evidence in a fiduciary duty case arising from the merger of a wrestling entertainment company (the “Company”) with a global sports and entertainment company (the “Acquiror”). In re World Wrestling Ent., Inc. Merger Litig., C.A. No. 2023-1166-JTL (Del. Ch. May 26, 2026). The Court found that the Company’s controlling stockholder and senior officers—at a minimum, recklessly— destroyed Signal chats and messages after receiving legal hold notices and that plaintiffs were prejudiced thereby because “context suggests” that the lost evidence was relevant. As a result, the Court ordered a shift of the burden of proof from plaintiffs to defendants by presuming the truth of a limited set of facts in favor of plaintiffs, subject to rebuttal only by clear and convincing evidence.

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