Free Response to Motion - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:00-cv-00697-JFM

Document 281

Filed 02/01/2007

Page 1 of 3

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY, No. 00-697C Plaintiff, Senior Judge Merow v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. PLAINTIFF'S OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR ENLARGEMENT OF TIME Wisconsin Electric Power Company ("WE") respectfully opposes the Government's motion, filed yesterday, for an enlargement of time of another week to file Government's response to plaintiff's deposition and trial testimony designations and any related Government motion. The requested extension will prejudice WE's trial preparation activities and the Government's request for this extension should be denied.1 Counsel for WE and the Government carefully negotiated a specific schedule for certain pretrial activities and the Government filings at issue were originally due on January 19, 2007. The schedule reflected WE's desire to address deposition and trial testimony designation issues during January and the first half of February. That would then permit WE counsel to devote the remaining weeks to preparing the numerous witnesses identified as trial witnesses. For the Court's information, the parties have identified more than fifty witnesses. While WE counsel will be approaching Government counsel to explore whether the parties can pare down their respective witness lists and possibly shorten or eliminate certain issues for trial, the Government's current witness list identifies twenty current or former WE personnel as potential witnesses. Further, several of these witnesses no longer reside in Wisconsin and we expected to devote the six weeks before trial to witness preparation issues
Notwithstanding its filing of an extension to file its motions in limine and summary judgment motions, the Government filed two motions in limine yesterday. The Government informs us that it intends to file one more such motion. In these circumstances, WE will not object to an extension until February 5, 2007 to file this remaining motion.
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Case 1:00-cv-00697-JFM

Document 281

Filed 02/01/2007

Page 2 of 3

including related travel. Having already agreed to a two week extension of the filing of this Government response, we believe that the request for yet another week is excessive and prejudicial to WE's trial preparation. Additionally, the Government misstates the impact of the requested enlargement. The Government asserts that WE "will receive the filings involved almost a full month prior to the pretrial conference." To the contrary, there would only be three weeks between this filing and the pretrial conference. The Government further asserts that WE "will receive the filings involved . . . nearly two months prior to trial," but there would only be six weeks between this filing and trial. For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully request that the Court deny the Government's request for another week to file its response to WE's deposition and trial testimony designations and any related Government motion. Instead, those pleadings should be filed on February 2, 2007. DATED: February 1, 2007 Respectfully submitted, s/Richard W. Oehler by s/Emily C.C. Poulin Richard W. Oehler Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4800 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 (206) 359-8419 Phone (206) 359-9419 Fax Attorneys for Plaintiff WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY

Of Counsel: Donald J. Carney Mary Rose Hughes Perkins Coie LLP 607 Fourteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005-2001 (202) 434-1675

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Case 1:00-cv-00697-JFM

Document 281

Filed 02/01/2007

Page 3 of 3

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I certify under penalty of perjury that, on February 1, 2007, I caused a copy of the foregoing "Plaintiff's Opposition To Defendant's Motion For Enlargement Of Time" to be filed electronically. I understand that notice of this filing will be sent to all parties by operation of the Court's electronic filing system. Parties may access this filing through the Court's system. s/Emily C.C. Poulin Emily C.C. Poulin

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