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

Case 1:07-cv-00151-MBH

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Filed 08/18/2008

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS UNITED STATES FIRE INS. CO., Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 07-151 (Judge Horn)

JOINT STATUS REPORT Pursuant to this Court's Order of July 16, 2008, plaintiff and defendant respectfully submit the following joint status report to advise the Court regarding the parties' settlement discussions and concerning the status of the case generally. For the reasons set forth in detail below, the parties seek the Court's permission to suspend expert discovery to allow for a possible settlement of this matter. The parties previously made a Joint Motion for Extension of Expert Discovery Deadline" on July 14, 2008, which the Court granted. The Joint Motion advised the Court that the parties were interested in entering settlement discussions. Toward that end, the United States (as outlined in the Joint Motion) did, in fact, provide United States Fire Insurance Company ("US Fire") with its draft expert report that outlined the Government's position with respect to US Fire's claim. The parties, both through counsel and their respective experts, met to discuss settlement on July 24, 2008. At the conclusion of the day-long settlement meeting, Government counsel advised that she would recommend a settlement at a stated amount which US Fire indicated a few days later would be acceptable to it. The process of Government's counsel's obtaining the

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Case 1:07-cv-00151-MBH

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requisite authority to formally extend a settlement offer in the amount that US Fire announced it would accept will take not less than one month. Although US Fire is disappointed that the matter cannot be resolved earlier, it understands the regulatory constraints that are involved in the approval process. The parties are in agreement that further expert discovery will distract from, rather than further, the goal of settlement, and request leave of Court to suspend expert discovery pending what they hope will be the final settlement of the parties' dispute sometime in early September 2008. Should the case not settle, plaintiff anticipates requesting that the Court extend the completion of expert discovery for the time now needed to determine if this case can be amicably resolved. The parties hope that such a motion will be unnecessary. Respectfully submitted, GREGORY G. KATSAS Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director

s/ Donald E. Kinner DONALD E. KINNER Assistant Director s/ Bruce Dickstein BRUCE DICKSTEIN DREIFUSS, BONACCI & PARKER, LLP 26 Columbia Turnpike, North Entrance Florham Park, N.J. 07932 Tel: (973) 514-1414 Fax: (973) 514-5959 s/ A. Bondurant Eley A. BONDURANT ELEY Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Classification Unit, 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20530 Tel: (202) 616-8254 Fax: (202) 514-8624 Attorneys for Defendant 2

Attorney for Plaintiff

Case 1:07-cv-00151-MBH

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August 4, 2008

August 18, 2008

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on this 18th day of August 2008, a copy of the foregoing AJOINT STATUS REPORT@ was 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/ A. Bondurant Eley