General Atomic Co. v. Exxon Nuclear Co.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

This matter is before the court on Exxon’s Motion to Impose Sanctions on Gulf Oil Corporation, General Atomic Company, and Scallop Nuclear, Inc. (the counterclaim defendants) pursuant to Rule 37(b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for failure to produce approximately 14,000 documents consisting of 40,000 pages located in Canada under the possession, custody, and control of Gulf Minerals Canada Limited (GMCL), a Gulf subsidiary. The withheld documents pertain to uranium marketing and activities of an international uranium cartel from 1971 through 1975 under which price controls and market allocations were established for sales of uranium throughout the world.

Discovery orders under Rule 37(a), F.R. Civ.P. requiring Gulf to produce documents responsive to Exxon’s discovery requests were issued on November 16, 1979 and January 14, 1980. Gulf failed to fully comply with the discovery orders on the grounds that production of the withheld documents would violate Canadian penal law.

In its Motion for Sanctions, Exxon contends that the withheld documents are crucial to a fair trial of the case; that the failure to produce was caused in part by the fault of Gulf;…