U & I Corp. v. Advanced Medical Design, Inc.

251 F.R.D. 667, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27931, 2008 WL 821993
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedMarch 26, 2008
DocketNo. 8:06-CV-2041-T-17EAJ
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 251 F.R.D. 667 (U & I Corp. v. Advanced Medical Design, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U & I Corp. v. Advanced Medical Design, Inc., 251 F.R.D. 667, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27931, 2008 WL 821993 (M.D. Fla. 2008).

Opinion

ORDER

ELIZABETH A. JENKINS, United States Magistrate Judge.

Before the court are Defendant’s Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 41), Plaintiffs Response in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 42), Defendant’s Motion for Protective Order and Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 77), Defendant’s Second Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 81), Plaintiffs Response in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Protective Order, Motion for Sanctions and Second Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 84), Defendant’s Motion to Compel and Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 92), Plaintiffs Response in Opposition to Motion to Compel and Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 101), Defendant’s Notice of Filing Declaration of L. Joseph Shaheen in Support of Motion for Sanctions (Dkt. 105) and Plaintiffs Notice of Compliance and Chronology of Document Production (Dkt. 112).

Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37, Defendant Advanced Medical Design, Inc. (“AMD”) seeks sanctions against Plaintiff U & I Corporation (“U & I”) for U & I’s failure to produce responsive documents in a timely manner, refusal to produce all responsive documents and violation of prior court orders. AMD also seeks an order to quash seven non-party subpoenas that were served after the discovery deadline.

U & I asserts that sanctions should be denied because it has timely produced all documents in response to AMD’s discovery and fully complied with the court’s orders. In reference to the motion for a protective order to quash the non-party subpoenas, U & I contends that the subpoenas are directly relevant to the issues in dispute.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

U & I sells medical equipment and is headquartered in Korea. (Dkt. 1) AMD, a Florida company, marketed and sold U & I’s [669]*669products in Latin America under a 2002 agreement between the parties. (Id.) Specifically, the products awarded to AMD under the agreement included U & I’s OPTIMA Spinal System line of products and other spinal implants and trauma products.

On October 16, 2006, U & I filed this case against AMD for breach of contract, account stated, open account, and unjust enrichment for AMD’s failure to pay its outstanding balance in 2005 and 2006. (Id.) AMD counterclaimed for breach of contract alleging, among other things, that U & I breached the agreement when it failed to deliver products within the time requirements of the contract, failed to offer AMD new products as required by the contract, and entered into an agreement with a third party to distribute the same products covered by the agreement with AMD. (Dkt. 8)

II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On January 19, 2007, AMD propounded its First Request for Production of Documents. On March 14, 2007, U & I produced 507 documents in response to AMD’s discovery request. (Dkt. 112 at 3) U & I produced 21 pages of documents to AMD on April 16, 2007. (Dkt. 112 at 3)

On April 17, 2007, AMD filed a motion to compel production of documents and a privilege log. (Dkt. 19) By order of July 13, 2007, the court granted in part and denied in part AMD’s first motion to compel. (Dkt. 34) U & I was directed to produce responsive documents dating back to January 1, 2003.1 (Id.) Pursuant to the court’s order, all responsive documents were to be produced by August 2, 2007.

During the month of August 2007, U & I produced approximately 1,085 documents.2 (Dkt. 112 at 4-5) On September 18, 2007, U & I produced 703 documents in response to AMD’s discovery request. (Dkt. 112 at 5) During the month of October 2007, U & I produced 297 documents to AMD.3 (Dkt. 112 at 6) On three separate dates in November 2007, U & I provided AMD with approximately 1,088 documents.4

A. AMD’s Motion For Sanctions (Dkt. W

On August 28, 2007, AMD filed a Motion to Compel and Motion for Sanctions arguing that U & I failed to produce documents covered by the court’s July 13, 2007 order. (Dkt. 41) AMD alleged that U & I failed to produce documents, including 2004 e-mails, attachments to all e-mails, executed copies of agreements, registration documents, and documents submitted to government agencies. (Dkt. 41 at 4)

In response, U & I alleged that its employees were “subject to prior international travel requirements that slowed the process and the server problems associated with 2004 documents further slowed this production.” (Dkt. 42 at 3) Additionally, U & I contended [670]*670that “confusion, software formatting, language barriers and understanding of the U.S. legal system” delayed document production. (Id.) Further, U & I’s counsel stated that he received e-mails from his client regarding the production of documents but was unable to open the e-mails, which delayed the production process. (Id.) As of September 12, 2007, U & I insisted that it had produced all responsive documents. (Id. at 5) Due to a computer error following a server change that occurred prior to this litigation, U & I contended that all 2004 e-mails were “unload-able,” and therefore, could not be produced. (Dkt. 42 at 6-9). U & I represented that it had no hard copies of any 2004 e-mails and no internal or external correspondence from 2004 to produce. (Dkt. 68; Dkt. 69 at 9) U & I agreed to supplement its discovery responses for evidentiary purposes to clarify its position that it produced all responsive documents under its control. (Dkt. 69 at 9)

By order of November 26, 2007, the court directed the parties to file a stipulation regarding the production of e-mail attachments and ordered U & I to file an amended discovery response. (Dkt. 69 at 9) The court deferred ruling on AMD’s motion to compel inspection of the hard drives of U & I’s computers pending the production of 2004 emails by a non-party, Zimmer Spine, Inc. (“Zimmer Spine”). (Dkt. 69 at 10)

Regarding AMD’s request for sanctions, the court found that U & I did not inform AMD that its 2004 e-mails were unobtainable in its discovery responses. (Dkt. 69 at 10) Instead, U & I’s counsel waited until after the time period had passed for it to comply with the court’s July 13, 2007 order to advise AMD of his client’s computer problems. (Id.) Without more information as to how the error occurred or what steps were taken to retrieve the information, it could not evaluate U & I’s conclusory statement that U & I’s deletion of all 2004 e-mails was made in good faith and any noncompliance was harmless. (Id.) Consequently, the November 26, 2007 order directed U & I to submit the affidavits of U & I’s corporate representative detailing why the e-mails were “unloadable” and the efforts the company had undertaken to retrieve the information. (Id. at 11)

B. U & I’s Production and the Parties’ Filings Pursuant to Court’s Orders

On November 27, 2007, the parties filed a stipulation regarding U & I’s production of attachments to e-mails during 2003 and 2005 through 2007. (Dkt.

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251 F.R.D. 667, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27931, 2008 WL 821993, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/u-i-corp-v-advanced-medical-design-inc-flmd-2008.