Free Joint Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:01-cv-00570-MCW

Document 176

Filed 01/03/2008

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THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS __________________________________________ BLUE LAKE FOREST PRODUCTS, INC., ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant. ) __________________________________________) __________________________________________ TIMBER PRODUCTS COMPANY, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant ) __________________________________________) CLR TIMBER HOLDINGS, INC., Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 01-570C (Judge Williams)

No. 01-627C (Judge Williams)

No. 04-501C (Judge Williams)

JOINT STATUS REPORT AND MOTION ON BEHALF OF BOTH PARTIES TO MODIFY THE COURT'S SCHEDULING ORDER DATED SEPTEMBER 28, 2007 On November 16, 2007, the government submitted settlement counter-proposals to each of the plaintiffs involved in this consolidated action. On December 4, 2007, plaintiffs Blue Lake

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Case 1:01-cv-00570-MCW

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Forest Products and CLR Timber Holdings provided the government with their counterproposals in response to the government's November 16th proposals. On December 5, 2007, plaintiff Timber Products Company submitted its counter-proposal to the government's proposal of November 16, 2007. On January 2, 2008, counsel for defendant informed counsel for plaintiffs that defendant wished to proceed with the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment on liability and that defendant would not make any further settlement proposals to plaintiffs at this time. Accordingly, the parties concur that settlement is unlikely prior to the Court's ruling on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment on liability.

Since the Court's September 28, 2007 Order establishing a schedule for the parties to file cross-motions for summary judgment on liability the parties have devoted the majority of their efforts to an attempt to settle all three of the lawsuits consolidated in this action, but some progress has been made on the motions. In this regard, plaintiffs have prepared over 100 paragraphs of proposed stipulations of fact which they intend to finalize and provide to defendant at the end of this week. Defendant will need some time to review these proposed stipulations with the objective of reaching an agreement with plaintiffs on all or as many as possible. The parties believe that finalizing this joint stipulation of facts will simplify and expedite the resolution of their cross-motions. In addition, both parties request additional time within which to prepare their initial briefs. Accordingly, the parties move for an order making the following changes in the Court's September 28, 2007 scheduling order:

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Previous Deadline 1. Filing of the parties' crossmotions for summary judgment on liability, statements of uncontroverted fact and supporting materials Filing of the parties' responses to the cross-motions for summary judgment on liability, responses to statements of uncontroverted fact and any additional supporting materials Filing of the parties' replies to responses to the crossmotions for summary judgment on liability

New Deadline

January 8, 2008

February 15, 2008

2.

February 5, 2008

March 28, 2008

3.

February 29, 2008

April 25, 2008

Respectfully submitted,

s/Gary G. Stevens SALTMAN & STEVENS, P.C. 1801 K Street, N.W. Suite M-110 Washington, D.C. 20008 (202) 452-2140 Counsel for Plaintiffs

JEFFREY S. BUCHOLTZ Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director

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s/Bryant G. Snee Deputy Director

s/Ellen M. Lynch Trial Attorney U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Attn: Classification Unit 1100 L Street, N.W. Room 12072 Washington, D.C. 20530 (202) 353-7994 Attorneys for Defendant Dated: January 3, 2008

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