Full opinion text
AMENDED OPINION AND ORDER SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN, District Judge: Zubulake Revisited: Six Years Later I. INTRODUCTION In an era where vast amounts of electronic information is available for review, discovery in certain cases has become increasingly complex and expensive. Courts cannot and do not expect that any party can meet a standard of perfection. Nonetheless, the courts have a right to expect that litigants and counsel will take the necessary steps to ensure that relevant records are preserved when litigation is reasonably anticipated, and that such records are collected, reviewed, and produced to the opposing party. As discussed six years ago in the Zubulake opinions, when this does not happen, the integrity of the judicial process is harmed and the courts are required to fashion a remedy. Once again, I have been compelled to closely review the discovery efforts of parties in a litigation, and once again have found that those efforts were flawed. As famously noted, “[tjhose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” By now, it should be abundantly clear that the duty to preserve means what it says and that a failure to preserve records — paper or electronic — and to search in the right places for those records, will inevitably result in the spoliation of evidence. In February, 2004, a group of investors brought this action to recover losses of 550 million dollars stemming from the liquidation of two British Virgin Islands based hedge funds in which they held shares: Lancer Offshore, Inc. and OmniFund Ltd. (the “Funds”). Plaintiffs have asserted claims under the federal securities laws and under New York law against former directors, administrators, the auditor, and the prime broker and custodian of the Funds. The Funds were managed by Lancer Management Group LLC (“Lancer”) and its principal, Michael Lauer. The Funds retained Citco Fund Services (Curacao) N.V. (“Citco NV”) to perform certain administrative duties, but it eventually resigned as administrator of the Funds. On April 16, 2003, Lancer filed for bankruptcy. On July 8, 2003, the Funds were placed into receivership in the Southern District of Florida. In October, 2007, during the discovery process, Citco NV, its parent company, the Citco Group Limited, and former Lancer Offshore directors who were Citco officers (collectively with Citco NV, the “Citco Defendants”) claimed that substantial gaps were found in plaintiffs’ document productions. As a result, depositions were held and declarations were submitted. This occurred from October, 2007 through June, 2008. Following the close of this discovery, the Citco Defendants moved for sanctions, alleging that each plaintiff failed to preserve and produce documents — including those stored electronically — and submitted false and misleading declarations regarding their document collection and preservation efforts. The Citco Defendants seek dismissal of the Complaint — or any lesser sanction the Court deems appropriate — based on plaintiffs’ alleged misconduct. Because this is a long and complicated opinion, it may be helpful to provide a brief summary up front. I begin with a discussion of how to define negligence, gross negligence, and willfulness in the discovery context and what conduct falls in each of these categories. I then review the law governing the imposition of sanctions for a party’s failure to produce relevant information during discovery. This is followed by factual summaries regarding the discovery efforts- — or lack thereof — undertaken by each of the thirteen plaintiffs against whom sanctions are sought, and then by an application of the law to those facts. Based on my review of the evidence, I conclude that all of these plaintiffs were either negligent or grossly negligent in meeting their discovery obligations. As a result, sanctions are required. II. AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK AND APPLICABLE LAW From the outset, it is important to recognize what this case involves and what it does not. This case does not present any egregious examples of litigants purposefully destroying evidence. This is a case where plaintiffs failed to timely institute written litigation holds and engaged in careless and indifferent collection efforts after the duty to preserve arose. As a result, there can be little doubt that some documents were lost or destroyed. The question, then, is whether plaintiffs’ conduct requires this Court to impose a sanction for the spoliation of evidence. To answer this question, there are several concepts that must be carefully reviewed and analyzed. The first is plaintiffs’ level of culpability — that is, was their conduct of discovery acceptable or was it negligent, grossly negligent, or willful. The second is the interplay between the duty to preserve evidence and the spoliation of evidence. The third is which party should bear the burden of proving that evidence has been lost or destroyed and the consequences resulting from that loss. And the fourth is the appropriate remedy for the harm caused by the spoliation. A. Defining Negligence, Gross Negligence, and Willfulness in the Discovery Context While many treatises and cases routinely define negligence, gross negligence, and willfulness in the context of tortious conduct, I have found no clear definition of these terms in the context of discovery misconduct. It is apparent to me that these terms simply describe a continuum. Conduct is either acceptable or unacceptable. Once it is unacceptable the only question is how bad is the conduct. That is a judgment call that must be made by a court reviewing the conduct through the backward lens known as hindsight. It is also a call that cannot be measured with exactitude and might be called differently by a different judge. That said, it is well established that negli gence involves unreasonable conduct in that it creates a risk of harm to others, but willfulness involves intentional or reckless conduct that is so unreasonable that harm is highly likely to occur. It is useful to begin with standard definitions of each term and then to explore the conduct, in the discovery context, that causes certain conduct to fall in one category or another. [Negligence] is conduct “which falls below the standard established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm.” [Negligence] is caused by heedlessness or inadvertence, by which the negligent party is unaware of the results which may follow from [its] act. But it may also arise where the negligent party has considered the possible consequences carefully, and has exercised [its] own best judgment. The standard of acceptable conduct is determined through experience. In the discovery context, the standards have been set by years of judicial decisions analyzing allegations of misconduct and reaching a determination as to what a party must do to meet its obligation to participate meaningfully and fairly in the discovery phase of a judicial proceeding. A failure to conform to this standard is negligent even if it results from a pure heart and an empty head. “Gross negligence has been described as a failure to exercise even that care which a careless person would use.” According to a leading treatise — Prosser & Keeton on Torts — most courts find that gross negligence is something more than negligence “and differs from ordinary negligence only in degree, and not in kind.” The same treatise groups willful, wanton, and reckless into one category that requires “that the actor has intentionally done an act of an unreasonable character in disregard of a known or obvious risk that was so great as to make it highly probable that harm would follow, and which thus is usually accompanied by a conscious indifference to the consequences.” Applying these terms in the discovery context is the next task. Proceeding chronologically, the first step in any discovery effort is the preservation of relevant information. A failure to preserve evidence resulting in the loss or destruction of relevant information is surely negligent, and, depending on the circumstances, may be grossly negligent or willful. For example, the intentional destruction of relevant records, either paper or electronic, after the duty to preserve has attached, is willful. Possibly after October, 2003, when Zubulake IV was issued, and definitely after July, 2004, when the final relevant Zubulake opinion was issued, the failure to issue a written litigation hold constitutes gross negligence because that failure is likely to result in the destruction of relevant information. The next step in the discovery process is collection and review. Once again, depending on the extent of the failure to collect evidence, or the sloppiness of the review, the resulting loss or destruction of evidence is surely negligent, and, depending on the circumstances may be grossly negligent or willful. For example, the failure to collect records — either paper or electronic — from key players constitutes gross negligence or willfulness as does the destruction of email or certain backup tapes after the duty to preserve has attached. By contrast, the failure to obtain records from all those employees who had any involvement with the issues raised in the litigation or anticipated litigation, as opposed to just the the key players, could constitute negligence. Similarly, the failure to take all appropriate measures to preserve ESI likely falls in the negligence category. These examples are not meant as a definitive list. Each case will turn on its own facts and the varieties of efforts and failures is infinite. I have drawn the examples above from this case and others. Recent cases have also addressed the failure to collect information from the files of former employees that remain in a party’s possession, custody, or control after the duty to preserve has attached (gross negligence) or the failure to assess the accuracy and validity of selected search terms (negligence). B. The Duty to Preserve and Spoliation Spoliation refers to the destruction or material alteration of evidence or to the failure to preserve property for another’s use as evidence in pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation. The right to impose sanctions for spoliation arises from a court’s inherent power to control the judicial process and litigation, but the power is limited to that necessary to redress conduct “which abuses the judicial process.” The policy underlying this inherent power of the courts is the need to preserve the integrity of the judicial process in order to retain confidence that the process works to uncover the truth.... The courts must protect the integrity of the judicial process because, “[a]s soon as the process falters ... the people are then justified in abandoning support for the system.” The common law duty to preserve evidence relevant to litigation is well recognized. The case law makes crystal clear that the breach of the duty to preserve, and the resulting spoliation of evidence, may result in the imposition of sanctions by a court because the court has the obligation to ensure that the judicial process is not abused. It is well established that the duty to preserve evidence arises when a party reasonably anticipates litigation. “ ‘[O]nee a party reasonably anticipates litigation, it must suspend its routine document retention/destruction policy and put in place a ‘litigation hold’ to ensure the preservation of relevant documents.’ ” A plaintiff s duty is more often triggered before litigation commences, in large part because plaintiffs control the timing of litigation. C. Burdens of Proof The third preliminary matter that must be analyzed is what can be done when documents are no longer available. This is not an easy question. It is often impossible to know what lost documents would have contained. At best, their content can be inferred from existing documents or recalled during depositions. But this is not always possible. Who then should bear the burden of establishing the relevance of evidence that can no longer be found? And, an even more difficult question is who should be required to prove that the absence of the missing material has caused prejudice to the innocent party. The burden of proof question differs depending on the severity of the sanction. For less severe sanctions—such as fines and cost-shifting—the inquiry focuses more on the conduct of the spoliating party than on whether documents were lost, and, if so, whether those documents were relevant and resulted in prejudice to the innocent party. As explained more thoroughly below, for more severe sanctions— such as dismissal, preclusion, or the imposition of an adverse inference—the court must consider, in addition to the conduct of the spoliating party, whether any missing evidence was relevant and whether the innocent party has suffered prejudice as a result of the loss of evidence. On the question of what is “relevant,” the Second Circuit has provided the following guidance: [0]ur cases make clear that “relevant” in this context means something more than sufficiently probative to satisfy Rule 401 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Rather, the party seeking an adverse inference must adduce sufficient evidence from which a reasonable trier of fact could infer that “the destroyed or unavailable evidence would have been of the nature alleged by the party affected by its destruction.” It is not enough for the innocent party to show that the destroyed evidence would have been responsive to a document request. The innocent party must also show that the evidence would have been helpful in proving its claims or defenses—ie., that the innocent party is prejudiced without that evidence. Proof of relevance does not necessarily equal proof of prejudice. In short, the innocent party must prove the following three elements: that the spoliating party (1) had control over the evidence and an obligation to preserve it at the time of destruction or loss; (2) acted with a culpable state of mind upon destroying or losing the evidence; and that (3) the missing evidence is relevant to the innocent party’s claim or defense. Relevance and prejudice may be presumed when the spoliating party acted in bad faith or in a grossly negligent manner. “Where a party destroys evidence in bad faith, that bad faith alone is sufficient circumstantial evidence from which a reasonable fact finder could conclude that the missing evidence was unfavorable to that party.” Although many courts in this district presume relevance where there is a finding of gross negligence, application of the presumption is not required. However, when the spoliating party was merely negligent, the innocent party must prove both relevance and prejudice in order to justify the imposition of a severe sanction. The innocent party may do so by “adduc[ing] sufficient evidence from which a reasonable trier of fact could infer that ‘the destroyed [or unavailable] evidence would have been of the nature alleged by the party affected by its destruction.’ ” “In other words, the [innocent party] must present extrinsic evidence tending to show that the destroyed e-mails would have been favorable to [its] case.” “Courts must take care not to ‘hold[ ] the prejudiced party to too strict a standard of proof regarding the likely contents of the destroyed [or unavailable] evidence,’ because doing so ‘would ... allow parties who have ... destroyed evidence to profit from that destruction.’ ” No matter what level of culpability is found, any presumption is rebuttable and the spoliating party should have the opportunity to demonstrate that the innocent party has not been prejudiced by the absence of the missing information. If the spoliating party offers proof that there has been no prejudice, the innocent party, of course, may offer evidence to counter that proof. While requiring the innocent party to demonstrate the relevance of information that it can never review may seem unfair, the party seeking relief has some obligation to make a showing of relevance and eventually prejudice, lest litigation become a “gotcha” game rather than a full and fair opportunity to air the merits of a dispute. If a presumption of relevance and prejudice were awarded to every party who can show that an adversary failed to produce any document, even if such failure is completely inadvertent, the incentive to find such error and capitalize on it would be overwhelming. This would not be a good thing. To ensure that no party’s task is too onerous or too lenient, I am employing the following burden shifting test: When the spoliating party’s conduct is sufficiently egregious to justify a court’s imposition of a presumption of relevance and prejudice, or when the spoliating party’s conduct warrants pei"mitting the jury to make such a presumption, the burden then shifts to the spoliating party to rebut that presumption. The spoliating party can do so, for example, by demonstrating that the innocent party had access to the evidence alleged to have been destroyed or that the evidence would not support the innocent party’s claims or defenses. If the spoliating party demonstrates to a court’s satisfaction that there could not have been any prejudice to the innocent party, then no jury instruction will be warranted, although a lesser sanction might still be required. D. Remedies The remaining question is what remedy should the court impose. “The determination of an appropriate sanction for spoliation, if any, is confined to the sound discretion of the trial judge and is assessed on a case-by-case basis.” Where the breach of a discovery obligation is the non-production of evidence, a court has broad discretion to determine the appropriate sanction. Appropriate sanctions should “(1) deter the parties from engaging in spoliation; (2) place the risk of an erroneous judgment on the party who wrongfully created the risk; and (3) restore ‘the prejudiced party to the same position [it] would have been in absent the wrongful destruction of evidence by the opposing party.’ ” It is well accepted that a court should always impose the least harsh sanction that can provide an adequate remedy. The choices include — from least harsh to most harsh — further discovery, cost-shifting, fines, special jury instructions, preclusion, and the entry of default judgment or dismissal (terminating sanctions). The selection of the appropriate remedy is a delicate matter requiring a great deal of time and attention by a court. The Citco Defendants request dismissal — the most extreme sanction. However, a terminating sanction is justified in only the most egregious cases, such as where a party has engaged in perjury, tampering with evidence, or intentionally destroying evidence by burning, shredding, or wiping out computer hard drives. As described below, there is no evidence of such misconduct in this case. Instead, the appropriate sanction here is some form of an adverse inference instruction that is intended to alleviate the harm suffered by the Citco Defendants. Like many other sanctions, an adverse inference instruction can take many forms, again ranging in degrees of harshness. The harshness of the instruction should be determined based on the nature of the spoliating party’s conduct — the more egregious the conduct, the more harsh the instruction. In its most harsh form, when a spoliating party has acted willfully or in bad faith, a jury can be instructed that certain facts are deemed admitted and must be accepted as true. At the next level, when a spoliating party has acted willfully or recklessly, a court may impose a mandatory presumption. Even a mandatory presumption, however, is considered to be rebuttable. The least harsh instruction permits (but does not require) a jury to presume that the lost evidence is both relevant and favorable to the innocent party. If it makes this presumption, the spoliating party’s rebuttal evidence must then be considered by the jury, which must then decide whether to draw an adverse inference against the spoliating party. This sanction still benefits the innocent party in that it allows the jury to consider both the misconduct of the spoliating party as well as proof of prejudice to the innocent party. Such a charge should be termed a “spoliation charge” to distinguish it from a charge where the a jury is directed to presume, albeit still subject to rebuttal, that the missing evidence would have been favorable to the innocent party, and from a charge where the jury is directed to deem certain facts admitted. Monetary sanctions are also appropriate in this case. “Monetary sanctions are appropriate ‘to punish the offending party for its actions [and] to deter the litigant’s conduct, sending the message that egregious conduct will not be tolerated.’ ” Awarding monetary sanctions “serves the remedial purpose of compensating [the movant] for the reasonable costs it incurred in bringing [a motion for sanctions].” This sanction is imposed in order to compensate the Citco Defendants for reviewing the declarations, conducting the additional depositions, and bringing this motion. Three final notes. First, I stress that at the end of the day the judgment call of whether to award sanctions is inherently subjective. A court has a “gut reaction” based on years of experience as to whether a litigant has complied with its discovery obligations and how hard it worked to comply. Second, while it would be helpful to develop a list of relevant criteria a court should review in evaluating discovery conduct, these inquiries are inherently fact intensive and must be reviewed case by case. Nonetheless, I offer the following guidance. After a discovery duty is well established, the failure to adhere to contemporary standards can be considered gross negligence. Thus, after the final relevant Zubulake opinion in July, 2004, the following failures support a finding of gross negligence, when the duty to preserve has attached: to issue a written litigation hold; to identify all of the key players and to ensure that their electronic and paper records are preserved; to cease the deletion of email or to preserve the records of former employees that are in a party’s possession, custody, or control; and to preserve backup tapes when they are the sole source of relevant information or when they relate to key players, if the relevant information maintained by those players is not obtainable from readily accessible sources. Finally, I note the risk that sanctions motions, which are very, very time consuming, distracting, and expensive for the parties and the court, will be increasingly sought by litigants. This, too, is not a good thing. For this reason alone, the most careful consideration should be given before a court finds that a party has violated its duty to comply with discovery obligations and deserves to be sanctioned. Likewise, parties need to anticipate and undertake document preservation with the most serious and thorough care, if for no other reason than to avoid the detour of sanctions. III. PROCEDURAL HISTORY In the summer of 2003, a group of investors formed an ad hoc “policy consultative committee” to represent the interests of the Funds’ investors, including “monitoring] the court proceedings” against Lancer and the Funds and “retaining] legal counsel as necessary ....” On September 17 and 18, 2003, this group of investors met prospective legal counsel. Although some plaintiffs had previously retained counsel, in October or November, 2003, plaintiffs retained BRBI and Berman as lead counsel for this suit. This lawsuit was then instituted on February 12, 2004 in the Southern District of Florida. On October 25, 2005, the case was transferred to this Court as a result of defendants’ motion to transfer venue. IV. PLAINTIFFS’ EFFORTS AT PRESERVATION AND PRODUCTION Shortly after its retention in October or November, 2003, Counsel contacted plaintiffs to begin document collection and preservation. Counsel telephoned and emailed plaintiffs and distributed memoranda instructing plaintiffs to be over, rather than under, inclusive, and noting that emails and electronic documents should be included in the production. Counsel indicated that the documents were necessary to draft the complaint, although they did not expressly direct that the search be limited to those documents. This instruction does not meet the standard for a litigation hold. It does not direct employees to preserve all relevant records — both paper and electronic — nor does it create a mechanism for collecting the preserved records so that they can be searched by someone other than the employee. Rather, the directive places total reliance on the employee to search and select what that employee believed to be responsive records without any supervision from Counsel. Throughout the litigation, Counsel sent plaintiffs monthly case status memoranda, which included additional requests for Lancer — related documents, including electronic documents. But these memoranda never specifically instructed plaintiffs not to destroy records so that Counsel could monitor the collection and production of documents. In 2004, a stay pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“PSLRA”) was instituted and remained in place until early 2007. Counsel “did not focus [their] efforts ... on discovery” while the PSLRA discovery stay was in place and plaintiffs did not issue a written litigation hold until 2007. In May, 2007, the Citco Defendants made their first document requests. Depositions of plaintiffs commenced on August 30, 2007. Those depositions revealed that there were gaps in plaintiffs’ document production. By October, 2007, the Citco Defendants were dissatisfied with plaintiffs’ efforts to produce missing documents. In response to a request from the Citco Defendants, the Court ordered plaintiffs to provide declarations regarding their efforts to preserve and produce documents. Counsel spent a huge amount of time preparing the declarations, including drafting, questioning plaintiffs’ employees, and attempting to locate documents that had not yet been produced. Counsel emphasized to each declarant the importance of the declarations’ accuracy and that each should be carefully reviewed prior to its execution. In a systematic manner, each declaration identifies the declarant’s relationship to the plaintiff and that, upon retaining Counsel in late 2003 or early 2004 — if not earlier — the steps plaintiff took to locate and preserve documents relating to its Lancer investment (the “2003/2004 Search”). Most declarations also discuss receiving, and complying with, a second search request in late 2007 or early 2008 (the “2007/2008 Search”). Each declarant states that he or she believes the company located, preserved, and produced “all” Lancer-related documents in its possession at the time of either the 2003/2004 search, the 2007/2008 search, or both. Each declarant also states that no responsive documents in plaintiffs possession, custody, or control were discarded or destroyed following a specific point in time— either after the “request to preserve them,” a specified date, or after the declarant arrived at the company. Plaintiffs’ declarations were submitted in the first half of 2008. At least four declarants submitted amended declarations, and at least one deponent submitted a declaration containing information not revealed prior to his deposition. The Citco Defendants then sought to depose certain declarants and other relevant individuals. The Court granted that request. The Citco Defendants found additional gaps in plaintiffs’ productions. By cross referencing the productions of other plaintiffs, former co-defendants, and the Receiver in the SEC Action, the Citco Defendants were able to identify at least 311 documents from twelve of the thirteen plaintiffs (all but the Bombardier Foundation) that should have been in plaintiffs’ productions, but were not included (“311 Documents”). In addition, the Citco Defendants discovered that almost all of the declarations were false and misleading and/or executed by a declarant without personal knowledge of its contents. Y. DISCUSSION A. Duty to Preserve and Document Destruction By April, 2003, Lancer had filed for bankruptcy, UM had filed a complaint with the Financial Services Commission of the British Virgin Islands, Hunnicutt and the Chagnon Plaintiffs had retained counsel, and the Chagnon Plaintiffs had initiated communication with a number of other plaintiffs. It is unreasonable to assume that the remaining plaintiffs — all sophisticated investors — were unaware of the impending Lancer collapse while other investors were filing suit and retaining counsel. Accordingly, each plaintiff was under a duty to preserve at that time. While, as discussed below, the duty to issue a written litigation hold might not have been well established at that time, it was beyond cavil that the duty to preserve evidence included a duty to preserve electronic records. The burden then falls to the Citco Defendants to demonstrate that documents were destroyed after the duty to preserve arose. The Citco Defendants first point to the 311 Documents, most of which postdate the onset of plaintiffs’ duty to preserve. Thus, those plaintiffs that failed to produce these documents clearly failed to preserve and produce relevant documents that existed at the time (or shortly after) the duty to preserve arose. This is not true, however, with respect to the Bombardier Foundation, Commonfund, KMEFIC, and UM. While three of these plaintiffs (all but the Bombardier Foundation) failed to produce documents that the Citco Defendants now have, those documents are older records that may not have been in plaintiffs’ possession and/or control at the time the duty to preserve arose. In addition to citing specific documents not produced by each plaintiff, the Citco Defendants next ask this Court to assume that each plaintiff also received or generated documents that have not been produced by anyone and are now presumed to be missing. Plaintiffs call such a request “absurd” and argue that any such inference would be based on no more than “rank speculation.” The Citco Defendants’ argument is by far the more compelling. All plaintiffs had a fiduciary duty to conduct due diligence before making significant investments in the Funds. Surely records must have existed documenting the due diligence, investments, and subsequent monitoring of these investments. The paucity of records produced by some plaintiffs and the admitted failure to preserve some records or search at all for others by all plaintiffs leads inexorably to the conclusion that relevant records have been lost or destroyed. B. Culpability The age of this case requires a dual analysis of culpability — plaintiffs’ conduct before and after 2005. The Citco Defendants contend that plaintiffs acted willfully or with reckless disregard, such that the sanction of dismissal is warranted. Plaintiffs admit that they failed to institute written litigation holds until 2007 when they returned their attention to discovery after a four year hiatus. Plaintiffs should have done so no later than 2005, when the action was transferred to this District. This requirement was clearly established in this District by mid 2004, after the last relevant Zubulake opinion was issued. Thus, the failure to do so as of that date was, at a minimum, grossly negligent. The severity of this misconduct would have justified severe sanctions had the Citco Defendants demonstrated that any documents were destroyed after 2005. They have not done so. It is likely that most of the evidence was lost before that date due to the failure to institute written litigation holds. Almost all plaintiffs’ pre-2005 conduct, apart from the failure to issue written litigation holds, is best characterized as either grossly negligent or negligent because they failed to execute a comprehensive search for documents and/or failed to sufficiently supervise or monitor their employees’ document collection. For some plaintiffs, no further evidence of culpable conduct is offered. For others, the Citco Defendants have provided additional evidence. For example, one plaintiff — the Bombardier Foundation — admitted that it destroyed backup data in 2004, after the duty to preserve at least some backup tapes was well-established. Similarly, several plaintiffs failed to collect and preserve documents of key players — including members of investment committees and/or boards of directors. One further problem bears mention. Each plaintiff was directed by this Court to submit a declaration documenting its search efforts for two periods — 2003/2004 and 2007/2008, as well as any steps taken in between. In the end, almost every plaintiff submitted a declaration that — at best — lacked attention to detail, or — at worst — was intentionally vague in an attempt to mislead the Citco Defendants and the Court. In addition, plaintiffs had a duty to adequately prepare knowledgeable witnesses with respect to these topics. Which files were searched, how the search was conducted, who was asked to search, what they were told, and the extent of any supervision are all topics reasonably within the scope of the inquiry. Several plaintiffs violated this duty. From my review of the evidence submitted by the parties and discussed at the hearings held on October 30, 2007 and April 22, 2008, I conclude that no plaintiff engaged in willful misconduct. However, as outlined below, I find that 2M, Hunnicutt, Coronation, the Chagnon Plaintiffs, Bombardier Trusts, and the Bombardier Foundation acted with gross negligence, and the Altar Fund, L’Ecole Polytechnique, Okabena, the Corbett Foundation, Commonfund, KMEFIC, and UM acted in a negligent manner. C. Relevance and Prejudice For those plaintiffs that were grossly negligent, I find that the Citco Defendants have “adduced enough evidence” that plaintiffs have failed to produce relevant documents and that the Cit-co Defendants have been prejudiced as a result. Thus, a jury will be permitted to presume, if it so chooses, both the relevance of the missing documents and resulting prejudice to the Citco Defendants, subject to the plaintiffs’ ability to rebut the presumption to the satisfaction of the trier of fact. For those plaintiffs that were negligent, the Citco Defendants must demonstrate that any destroyed documents were relevant and the loss was prejudicial. To meet this burden, the Citco Defendants begin by pointing to the 311 Documents. While many of these documents may be relevant, the Citco Defendants suffered no prejudice because all were eventually obtained from other sources. As noted by plaintiffs, “Citco possesses every one of the 311[D]ocuments; indeed, every one of these documents was marked as an exhibit and used by Citco at depositions.” The Citco Defendants had the opportunity to question witnesses about these documents and will be able to introduce them at trial. Severe sanctions based on the failure to produce the 311 Documents is not justified. By contrast, it is impossible to know the extent of the prejudice suffered by the Citco Defendants as a result of those emails and documents that have been permanently lost due to plaintiffs’ conduct. The volume of missing emails and documents can never be learned, nor can their substance be known. “Because we do not know what has been destroyed, it is impossible to accurately assess what harm has been done to the [innocent party] and what prejudice it has suffered.” Such documents may have been helpful to the Citco Defendants, helpful to plaintiffs, or of no value to any party. But it is plaintiffs’ misconduct that destroyed the emails and documents. Given the facts and circumstances presented here, I can only conclude that the Citco Defendants have carried their limited burden of demonstrating that the lost documents would have been relevant. The documents that no longer exist were created during the critical time period. Key players must have engaged in correspondence regarding the relevant transactions. There can be no serious question that the missing material would have been relevant. Prejudice is another matter. The Citco Defendants have gathered an enormous amount of discovery — both from documents and witnesses. Unless they can show through extrinsic evidence that the loss of the documents has prejudiced their ability to defend the case, then a lesser sanction than a spoliation charge is sufficient to address any lapse in the discovery efforts of the negligent plaintiffs. D. Individual Plaintiffs Because this motion involves the conduct of thirteen plaintiffs, and because the Citco Defendants have charged each plaintiff with distinct discovery misconduct, a factual summary as to each plaintiff is required. In addition, because the stakes are high for both sides, and because sanctions should not be awarded lightly nor should discovery misconduct be tolerated, it is important to carefully review that conduct to determine whether any plaintiff engaged in culpable conduct and, if so, what level of culpability should be assigned. Each plaintiffs discovery efforts is described below together with my determination of the adequacy of those efforts. 1. Plaintiffs that Acted in a Grossly Negligent Manner As detailed below, 2M, Hunnicutt, Coronation, the Chagnon Plaintiffs, Bombardier Trusts, and the Bombardier Foundation were grossly negligent in their discovery efforts. In each instance, these plaintiffs’ 2003/2004 Searches were severely deficient. In addition to failing to institute a timely written litigation hold, one or more of these plaintiffs failed to collect or preserve any electronic documents prior to 2007, continued to delete electronic documents after the duty to preserve arose, did not request documents from key players, delegated search efforts without any supervision from management, destroyed backup data potentially containing responsive documents of key players that were not otherwise available, and/or submitted misleading or inaccurate declarations. From this conduct, it is fair to presume that responsive documents were lost or destroyed. The relevance of any destroyed documents and the prejudice caused by their loss may also be presumed. Because this permissive presumption is rebuttable, I find that no reasonable juror could conclude that the Citco Defendants were prejudiced by plaintiffs’ failure to produce the 311 Documents. With regard to those documents that are missing or destroyed, however, the Citco Defendants are entitled to a spoliation instruction permitting the jury to presume, if it so chooses, that these documents would have been both relevant and prejudicial. The jury must then consider whether the plaintiffs have successfully rebutted this presumption. If plaintiffs succeed, no adverse inference will be drawn. If plaintiffs cannot rebut the presumption, the jury will be entitled to draw an adverse inference in favor of the Citco Defendants. a. 2M In his October, 2007 deposition, Letier, 2M’s former Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”), testified that although he served as the lead contact with Counsel prior to leaving 2M in 2004, he was not in charge of gathering and producing documents. He further testified that he neither took any steps to ensure that emails relating to the Funds were not deleted nor was he aware of anyone else at 2M doing so. He testified that he did not recall “ever giv[ing] instructions to anyone to preserve” Lancer-related documents and never received any such instructions. On March 31, 2008, Letier submitted a declaration stating that he directed other employees to locate and preserve Lancer-related documents and that “all documents” related to Lancer had been produced to Counsel during the 2003/2004 Search. Letier also declared that to the best of his knowledge no Lancer-related documents were discarded or destroyed after Counsel instructed 2M to locate all documents in its possession in late 2003 or early 2004. Subsequently, Letier amended his declaration to clarify that only “paper documents” had been produced. Trumpower, 2M’s current CFO and General Counsel, also submitted a declaration requiring amendment. Trumpower’s initial declaration indicated that 2M had searched for electronic documents prior to his arrival at 2M in 2007. In his amended declaration, Trumpower clarified that his declaration addressed only the 2007/2008 Search. Trumpower also declared that to the best of his knowledge, all relevant documents in 2M’s possession at the time of the 2007/2008 Search were submitted to Counsel and no documents had been discarded or destroyed at 2M since his arrival in February 2007. Trumpower testified that no emails had been deleted from 2M’s server since 2004 and personal folders were not automatically deleted from 2M’s network. The Citco Defendants also complain that 2M failed to produce “reams of research” on Lancer referenced in Trumpower’s deposition and another email. This research was, in fact, destroyed after April, 2003. Finally, the Citco Defendants have identified forty-six emails that were sent or received by 2M between June 9, 2003 and October 28, 2003, that were not produced by 2M. 2M “did not produce a single email or electronic document” until 2008. Then, on August 7 and 21, 2009, just days after plaintiffs submitted their opposition to this motion, 2M produced 8,084 pages of documents — more than three times the number of documents previously produced. This production included nearly seven hundred emails. The Citco Defendants have shown that 2M took no action to collect or preserve electronic documents prior to 2007, did not produce a single email or electronic document until 2008, and then dumped thousands of pages on the Citco Defendants only when it faced the prospect of sanctions. Although 2M can verify that it has not deleted any emails from its server since 2004, there is no similar representation for the most relevant period i.e., prior to 2004. 2M also concedes that its employees’ collection lacked oversight and that no direction was given either orally or in writing to preserve documents or cease deleting emails, until a written litigation hold was issued in 2007. Finally, 2M’s initial declarations were misleading as to whether 2M had conducted any electronic searches prior to 2007. These declarations, alone, would have supported a finding of bad faith. However, given that each declarant submitted an amended declaration within a reasonable time of being notified of the deficiencies in the original declaration, 2M’s conduct, on the whole, amounts to gross negligence. b. Hunnicutt At his deposition, William Hunnicutt, President of Hunnicutt, testified that to the best of his recollection, he maintained all of the emails he sent regarding Lancer from the inception of his relationship with Lancer in April 1998 through the first quarter of 2003. However, Mr. Hunnicutt also testified that he had a practice of deleting emails unless he “felt there was an important reason to keep them” and did not recall anyone ever instructing him to discontinue that practice. In addition, Mr. Hunnicutt took no steps during the 2003/2004 Search to request documents from, or search the files of, one current and one former employee to whom Hunnicutt assigned Lancer-related work. Some of this work was done by the employees on their personal computers outside of Hunnicutt’s offices. When shown emails he had sent but not produced, Mr. Hunnicutt could not explain why he had not produced them. However, when Mr. Hunnicutt submitted his declaration approximately two months later, he stated that he now recalled having accidently deleted his email “sent” file prior to March 13, 2003. The Citco Defendants have identified fifty-seven emails that Mr. Hunnicutt sent between February 3, 1999 and May 14, 2003, but did not produce. Mr. Hunnicutt’s continued deletion of emails long after 2003 is inexcusable, as is Hunnicutt’s failure to seek any Lancer-related documents or emails from one current employee and one former employee who worked on the Lancer investment. These actions and inactions — including the loss of the fifty-seven emails-— lead inexorably to the conclusion that relevant documents were not produced and are now lost. This conduct amounts to gross negligence. c. Coronation Coronation, operating out of offices in London and Cape Town, South Africa, delegated the 2003/2004 Search to Mei Hard-man, an employee in the “due diligence area.” Despite declaring that to the best of her knowledge Coronation located and preserved “all documents relating to Lancer,” Hardman testified at her deposition that she had no experience conducting searches, received no instruction on how to do so, had no supervision during the collection, and no contact with Counsel during the search. Hardman stated that she searched only the investment team’s drive on the London computer network, even though she was aware that not all emails or electronic documents on the office computers of investment team members would be on that drive. Hardman communicated the request for documents to the Cape Town office during a brief telephone conversation without imparting instructions. Hardman was also aware that Coronation kept backup tapes, but never searched them for Lancer-related documents and was unaware of anyone else doing so. Hardman also asked only three employees — Stuart Davies, Anthony Gibson, and Maria Meadows — out of a number of other employees in the London office to search their computers for emails and electronic documents. According to an internal Coronation memorandum, Davies, Gibson, and Meadows were part of a larger “investment team” comprised of up to twenty “investment specialists” in London, including fund managers, research analysts, due diligence analysts, and risk managers. Although Hardman resisted the characterization that the other investment specialists would have been involved in Lancer-related decisions, she acknowledged that investment specialist Fred Ingham was involved in Lancer-related decisions in July, 2003. Hardman also acknowledged that the files of Amrusta Blignaut, Coronation’s compliance officer and Arne Hassel, Chief Investment Officer of Coronation’s investment team, were never searched, but she did not know whether either Blignaut or Hassel held those positions prior to late 2003. The Citco Defendants have identified thirty-nine emails from May 16, 2003 through September 19, 2003 that Coronation did not produce. Coronation produced no emails or correspondence from 1998 through 1999 and only limited emails and correspondence from 2000 through 2002. Hardman was ill-equipped to handle Coronation’s discovery obligations without supervision. Given her inexperience, Hardman should have been taught proper search methods, remained in constant contact with Counsel, and should have been monitored by management. She searched only one network drive, permitted other employees to conduct their own searches, and delegated the Cape Town office search without follow-up. Hardman knew that backup tapes existed, but did not search them and, to the best of her knowledge, they have not been searched to this day. In addition to the paucity of Coronation’s document production for the years 1998 through 2002 and the recent production of emails by 2M including many that were copied to Coronation, the Citco Defendants have identified a number of employees Coronation should have searched but did not — including approximately seventeen members of the investment team, Coronation’s compliance officer, and Coronation’s chief investment officer. While it is not entirely clear that all of these people were involved with Lancer, it is clear that Ingham’s files were not searched and there is no question that Ingham was involved with Lancer-related investments in July, 2003. Based on the all of these facts it is apparent that Coronation acted in a grossly negligent manner. d. The Chagnon Plaintiffs The Chagnon Plaintiffs proffered Normand Gregoire, their Vice President of Investments, as their declarant with regard to their discovery efforts. Having joined the Chagnon Plaintiffs in 2004, the majority of Gregoire’s declaration pertaining to the 2003/2004 Search was based on information given to him by others. Gregoire’s declaration stated that the Chagnon Plaintiffs produced “all documents” — including emails and electronic documents — in their possession to Counsel in February or March 2004. Gregoire then admitted that some emails that had been located in 2004 were not provided to Counsel until 2008. In response to a questionnaire served on all plaintiffs, the Chagnon Plaintiffs identified at least twelve employees as having either been involved in decisions to invest in Lancer or having had some contact with Lancer on behalf of Chagnon. Of the twelve, Gregoire could only state conclusively that four were asked to search for relevant documents in the 2003/2004 Search. When some of the eight were later questioned in connection with the 2007/2008 Search, the conversations were brief — the Chagnon Plaintiffs received cursory confirmation that the employees either had no documents or had only a few that had already been produced, and the Chagnon Plaintiffs did not follow up or conduct their own search. The Citco Defendants have identified three emails from May and June 2003 that the Chagnon Plaintiffs did not produce. The Citco Defendants also note that the Chagnon Plaintiffs produced only two emails and two pieces of correspondence from 1998 through 2002. The Chagnon Plaintiffs produced an unspecified number of emails from 2003. Gregoire’s declaration was misleading and inaccurate in that it indicated “all” documents had been produced, when, as Gregoire admitted, some emails located in 2004 were not provided to Counsel until 2008. The Chagnon Plaintiffs produced an unusually small number of emails and correspondence from 1998 through 2002 — a total of four. In addition, the recent production of emails by 2M included a number of emails on which the Chagnon Plaintiffs were copied. These emails were not produced by the Chagnon Plaintiffs. Two-thirds of the key players were never asked for documents during the 2003/2004 Search. When they were contacted in 2007/2008, those employees had few, if any, documents. This combination of facts supports the conclusion that the Chagnon Plaintiffs were grossly negligent. e. Bombardier Trusts Patricia Romanovici, who joined Bombardier Trusts as Advisor, Compliance and Committee Secretary in May, 2007, submitted a declaration and testified regarding Bombardier Trusts’ search efforts. Because her arrival at Bombardier Trusts post-dated the 2003/2004 Search, she relied in large part on information provided to her by another employee, Guy Dionne. Romanovici declared that Bombardier Trusts had preserved and located “all documents” in their possession in 2003, but also admitted that Bombardier Trusts failed to search for or preserve emails or electronic documents prior to 2007, despite the inherent conflict in these two statements. In 2007, Bombardier Trusts hired a vendor to retrieve from backup tapes electronic data and email relating to Bombardier Trusts’ investments in Lancer. Romanovici stated that to the best of her understanding, “it is the practice of Bombardier’s Information Technology [ (“IT”) ] Department to back up electronic data and email correspondence monthly, but not necessarily to preserve it indefinitely.” This practice was not suspended for any employee at any time. “For a number of months during the years 2001 and 2002,” Bombardier Trusts was not able to recover emails because backup tapes either never existed or were blank. Romanovici speculated that the loss of these tapes was “possibl[y] due to systemic technological problems.” Romanovici also acknowledged that only five current and former employees were asked to produce documents in the 2003/2004 Search. At least eleven individuals on the Investment Committee of the Bombardier Trusts were not asked for any documents — -paper or electronic — during the 2003/2004 Search, even though they may have been involved in the decisions to invest or redeem shares in the Funds. Romanovici did not know whether the company’s central files had been searched during the 2003/2004 Search or the extent of communication between Dionne and Counsel. Romanovici also admitted that personal computers were not searched in the 2003/2004 Search and that if any documents were deleted from the server prior to the 2007/2008 Search, they would not be retrievable unless stored on a backup tape. The Citco Defendants have identified thirteen emails from June 10, 2003 through August 17, 2003 that Bombardier Trusts did not produce. In addition to submitting a misleading and inaccurate declaration, Bombardier Trusts failed to search for, or take steps to preserve, any electronic documents prior to 2007. Instead, it admittedly collected only paper documents from its employees who worked on Lancer. That the vendor hired in 2007 was not able to retrieve e-mails from some backup tapes is not surprising given that the recycling of backup tapes was never suspended. In addition, at least eleven members of its Investment Committee were not asked for any documents — paper or electronic — or instructed to preserve documents, until 2007. Finally, a number of emails were never produced, including emails only recently produced by 2M on which Bombardier Trusts was copied. The combination of these actions and inactions — coupled with Bombardier Trusts’ failure to produce a number of emails— amounts to gross negligence. f. The Bombardier Foundation Lyne Lavoie, the Bombardier Foundation’s director of administration and grants, supervised the Bombardier Foundation’s search efforts. Lavoie declared in 2004 that she instructed the Bombardier Foundation employees to locate and preserve “all files relating to Lancer.” There is no indication that the Bombardier Foundation searched for electronic documents or emails at that time. Lavoie admitted that the Bombardier Foundation gave Counsel only those documents the Foundation “understood to be responsive,” even though additional Lancer-related documents were preserved. The documents that were preserved after the 2003/2004 Search were not produced to Counsel until 2007. The Bombardier Foundation “backs up electronic documents and e-mails for a period of one year, then overwrites the prior year’s backed-up data with information from the next year.” This practice was never suspended. In 2007, the Bombardier Foundation directed a vendor to search the company’s servers for electronic documents and email relating to Lancer between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2003. This search “did not capture any documents or emails relating to Lancer that may have been deleted prior to 2007.” Noting that pursuant to the Foundation’s document retention policy only backup data for the year 2003 would have been in existence in 2004, Lavoie admits that “certain electronic data and-or emails for the year 2003[ ] may have been deleted from the [Foundation’s] servers prior to the time of its electronic search” in 2007. At her deposition, Lavoie testified that it was also possible that emails and electronic documents from 1999 through 2003 may have been in employees’ possession but deleted after 2004. Lavoie also testified that she instructed only two employees to search and preserve files related to Lancer, but did not recall telling them to preserve electronic documents or email and did not confirm that they had done so. The documents of the members of the Foundation’s Investment Committee or Board of Governors were never searched because any documents in their possession would be “duplicative.” The Bombardier Foundation contends that its investment decisions were handled by Bombardier Trusts and it is unlikely that the Foundation would have any documents that the Trusts did not have. Plaintiffs provide no support for this contention. If this were correct, every document produced by the Bombardier Foundation would also have been produced by Bombardier Trusts. This is not the case. The Citco Defendants have not identified any emails or documents not produced by the Bombardier Foundation. The Bombardier Foundation’s failure to search for any electronic documents or emails related to Lancer until 2007 cannot be rectified given Lavoie’s admission that relevant information has been deleted from the Foundation’s servers. The Bombardier Foundation’s discovery efforts failed in other significant respects: It failed to request any documents — paper or electronic — from the Foundation’s Investment Committee or its Board of Governors; it never altered its practice of overwriting backup data to preserve the records of key players; and it also withheld until 2008 documents it had collected in 2004, but had independently and arbitrarily decided were not “responsive.” Such conduct, coupled with the Bombardier Foundation’s misleading and inaccurate declaration, amounts to gross negligence. 2. Plaintiffs that Acted in a Negligent Manner The Altar Fund, L’Ecole Polytechnique, Okabena, the Corbett Foundation, Commonfund, KMEFIC, and UM were negligent in their discovery efforts. None of them instituted a written litigation hold in a timely manner, although all of them did so by 2007. Employees with possible Lancer involvement were not clearly instructed to preserve and collect all Lancer-related records. I have already held that after mid-2004, in the Southern District of New York, the failure to issue a written litigation hold in a timely manner amounts to gross negligence. I must therefore explain why, after careful consideration, I have found that these plaintiffs were negligent rather than grossly negligent. The failure to institute a written litigation hold in early 2004 in a case brought in federal court in Florida was on the borderline between a well-established duty and one that was not yet generally required. Thus, the rule of lenity compels the conclusion that this conduct alone, under these circumstances, is not sufficient to find that a plaintiff acted in a grossly negligent manner. I therefore have looked to any additional errors made during the discovery phase to determine whether the conduct was negligent or grossly negligent. Here, as described below, each of the plaintiffs in this category engaged in additional negligent conduct in carrying out its discovery obligations. a. The Altar Fund Richard Lombardi, president of Altar Asset Management Inc., which served as investment advisor to the Altar Fund, was the sole decision-maker regarding the Altar Fund’s Lancer investments. Lombardi declared that he conducted the 2003/2004 Search and everything in the Altar Fund’s possession was produced. According to Lombardi, in the normal course of business, employees are instructed to print all communications, including emails, related to clients. Those hard copies are then filed and those files on Lancer and the Funds were produced. When examined at his deposition, Lombardi did not know what email systems his company used, how electronic documents were stored, and admitted that he did not personally perform any electronic searches for responsive documents. Instead, Lombardi had instructed two assistants to conduct the searches without any supervision and was unfamiliar with the extent of their search. The Citco Defendants have identified fifty-three emails from March 20, 1997 through September 19, 2003 that the Altar Fund did not produce. These documents included emails to Lauer, Lancer, other plaintiffs and investors. The Citco Defendants have also identified five paper documents, as well as Lancer Offshore financial statements for 1998 through 2000, that were not produced. Lombardi delegated the s