Samsung avoided a potentially devastating turn of events in its lawsuit with Apple when the Korean company persuaded the judge that Apple is equally as guilty of ”spoliation” — failing to protect the destruction of relevant evidence. The judge was prepared to instruct the jury that Samsung had a policy to automatically delete emails relating to the patent case and that Apple had in turn met its evidentiary burden. A last minute objection and suggestion that Apple was guilty of the same swayed the judge and perhaps turned the case. [Source Fortune]