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

Case 1:06-cv-00312-TCW

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Filed 01/09/2008

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS MULTISERVICE JOINT VENTURE, LLC, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant. )

No. 06-312C (Judge Wheeler)

UNITED STATES' MOTION TO ENLARGE DISCOVERY PERIOD Pursuant to Rule 6(b) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims, we respectfully request an enlargement of discovery of 31 days, through and including February 18, 2008. Discovery currently closes on January 18, 2008. This is the United States' first motion for an enlargement for this purpose, though the parties previously filed two joint motions, which the Court granted. Multiservice Joint Venture, LLC ("MJV") consents to the extension (though it may not agree with all the reasons). We recognize that in granting the last enlargement of discovery the Court ordered that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no further enlargements would be permitted. We have worked our best to try to avoid further enlarging discovery. For three reasons, however, there are extraordinary circumstances warranting a one month enlargement of the discovery period. First, counsel for the plaintiff has informed us that the principals of plaintiff have suffered a death in the family, and this death required postponement of their scheduled depositions. We need to reschedule these depositions. Second, counsel for the plaintiff has several times altered her position on whether she "represents" former employees of Multiservice Joint Venture ("MJV"), and whether she will permit us to speak with such employees. Initially, we understood from MJVs disclosures, from

Case 1:06-cv-00312-TCW

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telephone conversations with counsel in November, and from usual and ordinary practice, that counsel for the plaintiff would represent these individuals, who include former senior managers of MJV, among others. In December, however, after communications between the parties attempting to schedule depositions, counsel indicated otherwise and advised the United States that it ­ not MJV ­ should coordinate with the former employees', who MJV intimated in its initial disclosures may be called as witnesses, and that counsel for MJV would not accept service of subpoenas for these individuals. After seeking confirmation that these individuals were not represented by plaintiff's counsel, plaintiff's counsel changed positions and indicated that the former employees would be represented by plaintiff's counsel, but that she would not cooperate with the Government in attempting to schedule their depositions. Finally, yesterday, plaintiff's counsel has given the United States permission to contact the deponents directly and has stated that they are not represented by plaintiff's counsel. We plan to fully and expeditiously schedule these former employees' depositions if, and when, we receive necessary clearance from Department of Justice ethics counsel, a process that will be expedited. Finally, an enlargement is warranted because time to conduct discovery was lost due to plaintiff's premature filing of a summary judgment motion, which required the government to prepare a Rule 56(f) motion, a reply in support of that motion (even though the Court granted the motion before a reply could be filed, a reply was prepared immediately upon receiving plaintiff's response), and, as best as it could, a partial response to the summary judgment motion in the event that the Rule 56(f) motion were not granted. For these reasons, given these extraordinary circumstances, we respectfully request a 31­day enlargement of discovery.

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Respectfully submitted, JEFFREY S. BUCHOLTZ Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director s/ Martin F. Hockey, Jr. MARTIN F. HOCKEY, JR. Assistant Director s/ Brian T. Edmunds BRIAN T. EDMUNDS Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice 1100 L Street, NW Attn: Classification Unit, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20530 (202) 616-8253 January 9, 2008 Attorneys for the United States

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on this 9th day of January 2008, a copy of the foregoing "UNITED STATES MOTION TO ENLARGE DISCOVERY PERIOD" was filed electronically. Parties may access the filing through the Court's electronic filing system.

s/ Brian T. Edmunds

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