Home Depot Beats Worker Injury Suit Due to Attorney Email Snafu

Home Depot USA Inc. will escape an employee’s personal injury lawsuit because the plaintiff’s lawyer missed a key deadline due to an email mixup, the Fifth Circuit affirmed, citing the incident as a “cautionary tale.”

Kevin Rollins sued Home Depot for an on-the-job injury he sustained while moving a bathtub. Home Depot filed a motion for summary judgment. The notification of the filing was inadvertently filtered into a part of Rollins’ counsel’s email system marked “other,” instead of the main email box where all prior filings in the case had been received.

As a result, the counsel missed the deadline ...