Free Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:88-cv-00508-EGB

Document 94

Filed 10/22/2007

Page 1 of 3

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ) ) Plaintiff, ) v. ) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant, ) _________________________________________ ) THE NAVAJO NATION,

No. 508-88L Senior Judge Eric G. Bruggink

THE UNITED STATES' STATUS REPORT Pursuant to the parties' July 23, 2007 Joint Status Report, and the Court's July 24, 2007 Order, the parties are required to submit a Joint Status Report by today. The parties exchanged draft proposed reports, but were unable to agree on a final version. The United States, therefore, submits the following report: 1. The parties are continuing to exchange documents that may be relevant to the

issues raised in this case. 2. The United States has advised the Plaintiff that there are additional documents

that may be relevant to this lawsuit located in two or three different field offices that the United States intends to acquire and copy. The United States has acquired these documents, and is reviewing those documents for privilege. The United States will provide the non-privileged documents to the Plaintiff as soon as it has completed its review. 3. The Plaintiff has also acquired additional documents and anticipates being able to

provide these documents to the United States by the end of October. 4. As stated in the July 23, 2007 Joint Status Report, there are potentially relevant

documents located in the American Indian Records Repository ("AIRR") in Lenexa, Kansas. Counsel for the Plaintiff and the United States traveled to Lenexa, Kansas on October 15-18, 2007, to review those documents that the United States had categorized as being in Tier 1 (that

Case 1:88-cv-00508-EGB

Document 94

Filed 10/22/2007

Page 2 of 3

is, potentially the most relevant to the issues involved in this case). Counsel for the United States completed its review of these documents on October 18. Counsel for the Plaintiff has not yet completed its review, and intends to review the remaining documents as soon as practicable. Counsel for the Plaintiff hopes to complete its review of these documents during the week of November 5, and the parties are currently working together to arrange a time to permit that review. Based on the parties' review of the Tier 1 documents, the parties do not believe it is necessary to review the documents in Tiers 2-4. 5. During their review of the documents located at AIRR, the parties copied certain

documents. Before the United States can provide the Plaintiff with copies of these documents, the documents must be reviewed by the Solicitor's Office. The United States will provide these documents to Plaintiff as soon as that review is completed. 6. Once the parties have had an opportunity to review the documents retrieved from

the field offices and the documents retrieved from the AIRR facility, they will be in a position to determine the most efficient way to proceed in this case. 7. It is the United States' position that once the above-described documents are

exchanged, the parties will have largely completed written liability-related non-expert discovery. It is the United States' position that before this case can move forward in a productive manner, it may be necessary for the parties to resolve certain issues, either by agreement or by dispositive motions. The United States believes that additional time will permit the parties to discuss, and hopefully agree on, the most appropriate way to resolve these issues. 8. The parties propose submitting to the Court their proposed plan as to how to

proceed in this case on or before December 18, 2007.

2

Case 1:88-cv-00508-EGB

Document 94

Filed 10/22/2007

Page 3 of 3

Dated: October 22, 2007

Respectfully submitted, RONALD J. TENPAS Acting Assistant Attorney General Environment and Natural Resources Division

_/s/ William J. Shapiro_________________ WILLIAM J. SHAPIRO Trial Attorney United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division Natural Resources Section 501 I Street, Suite 9-700 Sacramento, California 95814 (916) 930-2207 (phone) (916) 930-2210 (fax)

3