Free Notice (Other) - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:06-cv-00943-LMB

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ) ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant. ) ____________________________________) THE SALT RIVER PIMA-MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY,

Case No. 06-943L (LMB) (Electronically Filed December 27, 2007)

DEFENDANT'S NOTICE OF FILING REGARDING DEFENDANT'S RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO SUBSTITUTE TRANSCRIPT Late in the day on December 21, 2007, Plaintiff, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community ("Plaintiff" or "Salt River") filed a Motion to substitute the transcript (Motion to Substitute Transcript, Docket No. 35) prepared by the Heritage Reporting Corporation ("Heritage Transcript") for the evidentiary hearing held before this Court on December 10, 2007. Plaintiff attached a Red-lined version of the Heritage Transcript as well as a proposed corrected transcript (see Exhibits C and D to Motion to Substitute Transcript) which Plaintiff requests be treated by this Court as the official transcript of the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing. See Motion to Substitute Transcript at 4. On December 19, 2007, undersigned counsel was contacted by Ms. Lauren Weeman, of this Honorable Court. Ms. Weeman informed counsel that there was a problem with the initial version of the Heritage Transcript from the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing. She further informed undersigned counsel that a corrected version of the December 10, 2007 hearing transcript had been ordered. Finally, Ms. Weeman informed undersigned counsel that the Court would be mailing the United States a "courtesy copy" of the digital audio recording taken in this Court during the -1-

Case 1:06-cv-00943-LMB

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December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing. Undersigned counsel received the Court's courtesy copy of the audio recording when he returned to the office on Thursday, December 27, 2007.1/ Importantly, as of Wednesday, December 19, 2007, the Heritage Reporting Corporation had not yet provided the United States with its ordered copy of the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing transcript.2/ After contacting Heritage Reporting Corporation regarding this order, a company representative informed an assistant for undersigned counsel that it expects to deliver a copy of the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing transcript to the United States on or about Friday, December 28, 2007. Counsel undersigned cannot adequately review the accuracy of the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing transcript, nor can the Defendant respond to Plaintiff's request to substitute its proposed transcript into the official record in this case until it: (1) receives a copy of the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing transcript from the Heritage Reporting Corporation, and (2) has a sufficient opportunity to review the audio recording from the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing. Pursuant to Rules 6(a) and 7.2(a) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims ("RCFC"), the Defendant's response to Plaintiff's Motion to Substitute Transcript is due on

The Offices of the United States Department of Justice were closed on December 24-25, 2007 due to the Christmas Holiday. Undersigned counsel was out of the office on Annual Leave on Wednesday, December 26, 2007. As of the time of this filing, members of the Defendant's technical support team are processing the Court's courtesy copy of the December 10, 2007 audio recording into a usable format. The United States placed an order for the December 10, 2007 transcript on the afternoon of December 10, 2007, via an e-mail, using the Court of Federal Claims "Request for Transmittal of Audio Transcript" form. As of the date of this filing, the United States, through no fault of its own, has not yet received its copy of the December 10, 2007 evidentiary hearing transcript. -22/

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Monday, January 7, 2008.3/ Plaintiff, however, requests that the United States provide its response by no later than Monday, December 31, 2007. Given the circumstances described above, as well as undersigned counsel's commitments associated with other matters, it is simply unfeasible for the United States to offer its response by the date requested by the Plaintiff. In the interest of fairness and professional courtesy, however, the United States submits that it can be prepared to offer its response to Plaintiff's Motion to Substitute Transcript by Thursday January 3, 2008 assuming that the above-referenced transcript is received in a timely manner as expected. Respectfully submitted this 27th day of December, 2007

RONALD J. TENPAS Assistant Attorney General

/s/ Kevin J. Larsen KEVIN J. LARSEN United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division Natural Resources Section P.O. Box 663 Washington, D.C. 20044-0663 Tel: (202) 305-0258 Fax: (202) 353-2021 Attorney of Record for Defendant OF COUNSEL: JOHN H. MARTIN United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division 1961 Stout Street, 8th Floor Denver, CO 80294

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Responses or objections to written motions "shall be filed within 14 days after service of the motion." RCFC 7.2(a). -3-

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Tel: (303) 844-1383 Fax: (303) 844-1350 THOMAS R. BARTMAN Indian Trust Litigation Office Office of the Solicitor Department of the Interior 1849 C St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20240 Tel: (202) 208-5000 Fax: (202) 219-0559 TERESA DAWSON Office of the Chief Counsel Financial Management Service United States Department of the Treasury Washington, D.C. 20227

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