Free Motion for Extension of Time to Complete Discovery - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:99-cv-02051-LAS

Document 57

Filed 04/17/2008

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

ATHEY, ROBERT M., et al., Plaintiffs, v.

C.A. No. 99-2051C (Senior Judge Smith)

THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

DEFENDANT'S SECOND MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME Pursuant to Rule 6(b) of the Rules of this Court, defendant, the United States, respectfully requests a second enlargement of time of 35 days within which to respond to the discovery requests submitted by plaintiffs. The Government's responses are currently due on April 17, 2008. The extension would bring the date for responding to the discovery to May 22, 2008. This is the defendant's second request for an enlargement of time for this purpose. Counsel for plaintiffs, Ira Lechner, has indicated that he does not oppose this enlargement. This second request is necessary because the discovery requests propounded by plaintiffs are massive in nature. The Government has been attempting to search for information from each of almost 300 Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") pay centers where payment of lump-sum leave is made. Furthermore, the Government must seek information from the Financial Services Center in Austin, Texas, where many older records are kept on microfiche. Additionally, because the putative class here potentially numbers over 200,000 former VA employees, the search for information is necessarily labor-intensive. The need to coordinate with many various offices within the agency has prevented completion of the discovery within the additional time provided by the Court. In spite of the best efforts by agency counsel to coordinate the discovery

Case 1:99-cv-02051-LAS

Document 57

Filed 04/17/2008

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effort, because of the many requests and the many offices from which information is being collected, this extremely labor intensive task is taking much longer than anticipated. For these reasons, defendant respectfully requests that the Court grant defendant's motion for an enlargement of time of 35 days, to and including May 22, 2008, within which to respond to plaintiffs' discovery. Respectfully submitted, JEFFREY S. BUCHOLTZ Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director

/s/ Todd M. Hughes TODD M. HUGHES Deputy Director OF COUNSEL: /s/ Sharon A. Snyder SHARON A. SNYDER Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 1100 L St., NW, 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20530 (202) 616-0347 Attorneys for Defendant

KATE M. RYAN General Attorney U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 801 Vermont Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C.

April 17, 2008

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Case 1:99-cv-02051-LAS

Document 57

Filed 04/17/2008

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on April 17, 2008, a copy of the foregoing "DEFENDANT'S

SECOND MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME" 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/ Sharon A. Snyder