Free Motion for Protective Order - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:07-cv-00126-LMB

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS SI-NOR INCORPORATED, a California corporation, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) No. 07-126C ) (Judge Baskir) ) ) )

JOINT MOTION FOR ENTRY OF STIPULATION AND PROTECTIVE ORDER REGARDING PROPRIETARY INFORMATION Pursuant to Rules 7(b) and 26(c) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims, the parties respectfully request that the Court enter the accompanying proposed Stipulation and Protective Order regarding proprietary information. Defendant's counsel has advised plaintiff's counsel that certain discovery sought by plaintiff in this case will involve the disclosure of the proprietary information of several of plaintiff's potential competitors, which are not parties to this litigation, and the parties have agreed to protect such information in the manner set forth in the attached draft protective order. Plaintiff Si-Nor, Inc. ("Si-Nor") alleges that it entered into a contract with the Government under which it operated a recycling center at Offutt Air Force Base, and that the Government breached that agreement by not

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compensating plaintiff for expenses incurred. In connection with its claims in this case, plaintiff has requested that the Government produce "[a]ny and all accounting information showing the costs to Defendant for operating the [Recycling] Center by Defendant's Base Environment Services Department and Department of Reutilization Marketing Office ("DRMO") prior to July 1,2000." The Government has advised plaintiff that documents bates labeled GOV005852 through GOV005884, GOV006275 through GOV006276, GOV007149 through GOV007153, GOV007155, GOV007321, GOV007580 through GOV007585, and GOV007611 through GOV007629, which are responsive to plaintiff's document requests, contain prices, quotes and bidrelated information from companies that may be considered competitors of Si-Nor, and, as such, constitute protected proprietary information or trade secrets. Plaintiff's counsel has agreed that, if such files are produced to him in their entirety, they initially will be for counsel's eyes only. In the event that plaintiff's counsel determines that he wishes to use the above-listed documents, either at trial or any other phase of this litigation, in a manner that will require their disclosure to individuals and entities not identified as parties to whom such disclosures may be made under the attached

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Protective Order, plaintiff's counsel will so advise defense counsel, and seek leave of Court. Given the proprietary nature of these documents, and the possible need for using the information contained therein during the litigation, it is in the interest of the parties to see the entry of the accompanying stipulation and protective order. For these reasons, the parties respectfully request that this joint motion for the entry of the stipulation and protective order be granted.

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Respectfully submitted, JEFFREY S. BUCKHOLTZ Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director
s/ Bryant Snee for s/Deborah Bynum

DEBORAH A. BYNUM Assistant Director s/Joseph F. Curd JOSEPH F. CURD Curd, Galindo & Smith, LLP 301 E. Ocean Boulevard Suite 1700 Long Beach, CA 90802 Tel: (562) 624-1177 Fax: (562) 624-1178 s/ A. Bondurant Eley A. BONDURANT ELEY Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice 1100 L Street NW Attn: Classification Unit, 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20530 202-616-8254 202-307-0972 Attorneys for Defendant Dated: December 27, 2007

Attorney for Plaintiff Dated: December 19, 2007

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on this 27th day of December 2007, a copy of the foregoing "JOINT MOTION FOR ENTRY OF STIPULATION AND PROTECTIVE ORDER REGARDING PROPRIETARY INFORMATION" 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

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