In a new decision, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York - whose Zubulake series of opinions a decade ago established the framework for the preservation of electronically stored information ("ESI") in litigation - has imposed an adverse inference sanction on a plaintiff for the destruction of email data. In Sekisui American Corp. v. Hart, No. 12 Civ. 3479 (SAS) (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 15, 2013), during a very lengthy interval between the plaintiff's written threat of litigation and the issuance of a litigation hold, relevant ESI was permanently destroyed by employees who were responding to unrelated business technology needs. The Sekisui decision reviews Judge Scheindlin's own guidance concerning e-discovery preservation obligations while addressing the most recent Second Circuit jurisprudence concerning the standards for the issuance of an adverse inference sanction.