## Facts

- Thousands of plaintiffs in a multidistrict products-liability action alleged that ingestion of Seroquel caused diabetes and related disorders; AstraZeneca manufactured the drug.
- The court entered case-management and discovery orders requiring production of key regulatory materials (including IND/NDA files) and other electronically stored information (ESI) under tight deadlines.
- Plaintiffs moved for discovery sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b)(2), alleging repeated failures to comply with discovery obligations and orders in four ESI areas: (1) IND/NDA production, (2) organizational charts, (3) identification of relevant databases, and (4) custodial ESI from key employees.
- Plaintiffs asserted that productions were chronically late and often not readable or searchable; they also contended AstraZeneca failed to timely disclose or properly execute keyword searching and failed to make ESI experts available to resolve technical issues.
- Plaintiffs claimed AstraZeneca under-identified relevant databases and that plaintiffs later identified numerous additional databases.
- AstraZeneca opposed sanctions, arguing it complied with the discovery orders and that sanctions were improper because plaintiffs had not first obtained specific orders compelling compliance on each disputed item.

## Issues

1. Whether AstraZeneca failed to obey discovery and case-management orders governing ESI production, including database identification and custodial ESI, so as to permit sanctions under Rule 37(b)(2).
2. Whether alleged ESI failures—late production, non-searchable/non-readable formats, and non-disclosure of search methodology—constituted sanctionable violations rather than non-sanctionable technical problems or delay.
3. Whether sanctions required a prior motion to compel beyond the existing scheduling and production orders.

## Decision

- The court granted the motion for sanctions in part.
- The court found that not all complained-of conduct warranted sanctions.
- The court held AstraZeneca’s conduct regarding custodial ESI production and related database issues was sanctionable, emphasizing uncooperative handling of technical problems and deficiencies in producing usable ESI.
- The court rejected AstraZeneca’s argument that sanctions were unavailable absent separate motions to compel, treating the existing discovery and scheduling orders as sufficient predicates under Rule 37(b)(2).
- The court deferred selecting and quantifying sanctions pending further proceedings, including an evidentiary hearing to assess prejudice and costs attributable to the violations.

## Legal Principles

- Rule 37(b)(2) authorizes sanctions when a party fails to obey a court order to provide or permit discovery; scheduling and production orders can satisfy the “order” requirement.
- In ESI-heavy litigation, compliance includes producing ESI in a usable form (including readable and searchable formats) when required by court orders and discovery directives.
- Parties must cooperate to address technical ESI issues; failure to engage meaningfully (including by delaying expert-to-expert consultation) may support sanctions when it results in unusable or materially delayed production.
- Search processes used to collect and produce ESI (including keyword strategies) can be relevant to compliance; undisclosed or defective search practices that omit responsive materials may constitute noncompliance with discovery obligations and court directives.
- When sanctions are warranted, courts may tailor the remedy to demonstrated prejudice and costs and may postpone the sanction determination to develop a record through further proceedings.

## Conclusion

In this MDL discovery dispute, the court held that AstraZeneca’s late and deficient custodial ESI production and problematic handling of database identification and technical cooperation violated governing discovery orders and supported Rule 37(b)(2) sanctions, while reserving the specific remedy for a later hearing focused on prejudice and costs.


In re Seroquel Prods. Liab. Litig., 244 F.R.D. 650 (M.D. Fla. 2007)