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

Case 1:05-cv-01121-EJD

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Filed 01/24/2007

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS

WEST COAST CONTRACTORS OF NEVADA, INC., Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

) ) ) ) ) No. 05-1121C ) ) (Chief Judge Damich) ) ) )

DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT Pursuant to Rule 6.1 of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims, defendant respectfully requests an enlargement of three months, from February 2, 2007 until April 30, 2007, to complete fact discovery. Defendant further requests that the date for submission of expert reports be enlarged from January 31, 2007 until May 7, 2007. Defendant requests that the date for completion of expert depositions be enlarged from March 15, 2007 to June 22, 2007. Defendant requests that the dispositive motion deadline be enlarged from March 15, 2007 to July 6, 2007. Defendant's counsel has spoken with Kristen Draper, attorney for plaintiff, West Coast Contractors of Nevada, Inc. ("WCC") who does not oppose this motion. This is defendant's first request for an enlargement of time for this purpose. In support of this motion, defendant states that it served its second request for production of documents upon WCC on November 1, 2006. WCC provided a written response to the document request on December 4, 2006, but did not produce any documents at that time. On January 10, 2007, WCC provided defendant more than 16,000 pages of documents in response to the document request. On January 11, 2007, WCC produced several hundred additional pages of documents. Upon seeing the volume of documents, defendant informed WCC that defendant

Case 1:05-cv-01121-EJD

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would require about three weeks to review the documents and prepare for the depositions of WCC's employees and subcontractors that reside in Nevada. Defendant cannot travel to Nevada for the depositions during the week of February 5, 2007 because he has an oral argument in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Grumman Aerospace Corp. v. Wynne, No. 2006-1482. The parties then tentatively settled upon the week of February 12, 2007 for the depositions. Defendant also expects to take depositions of certain of WCC's design consultants in Washington state. However, because of the length of time that the Nevada depositions will require, it is unlikely that defendant will be able to conduct the Nevada and Washington depositions during the same week. On January 18, 2007, WCC communicated to defendant that it would like to depose seven Navy witnesses, most or all of whom reside in California. Defendant's counsel stated that he has bid protest duty the weeks of February 19 and 26, 2007 and would not be able to travel to California during those weeks. WCC responded that its lead counsel, William Davis, has trial commitments during March 2007, and would not be available until the first week of April, 2007. The parties are now working to schedule the depositions of the Navy employees, many of whom have retired, for the week of April 2. Mr. Davis also has a trial commitment the week of April 16, 2007 that will preclude him from traveling to Washington during the weeks of April 9 and 16 for the depositions of WCC's designers. Therefore, the first week which is available for the depositions of WCC's designers is April 23, 2007. Accordingly, defendant respectfully requests that the Court grant this motion and revise the discovery schedule with the dates set forth above.

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Case 1:05-cv-01121-EJD

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Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/Brian M. Simkin BRIAN M. SIMKIN Assistant Director s/Michael N. O'Connell MICHAEL N. O'CONNELL Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 12th Floor Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 307-0282 Attorneys for Defendant Dated: January 24, 2007

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Case 1:05-cv-01121-EJD

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on this 24th day of January, 2007, a copy of the foregoing motion for enlargement 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/ Michael N. O'Connell

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