Free Motion to Amend Schedule - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00776-MMS

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Filed 09/12/2006

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS AG-INNOVATIONS, INC., LARRY FAILLACE, LINDA FAILLACE, and HOUGHTON FREEMAN, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 05-776C (Judge Sweeney)

DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF PRETRIAL SCHEDULE Defendant respectfully requests the Court to extend the parties' pretrial schedule as follows:1 1. 2006. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Defendant shall identify its experts no later than November 29, 2006. Written and fact discovery shall close no later than January 5, 2007. Defendant shall submit its expert report to Plaintiffs no later than February 1, 2007. Expert discovery shall close no later than March 17, 2007. The parties shall file a joint status report no later than April 6, 2007. Plaintiffs shall submit their expert reports to Defendant on or before November 1,

Counsel for the Government has conferred with plaintiffs' counsel who has authorized us to represent that plaintiffs will not oppose the Government's motion. Defendant was unable to complete its response to plaintiffs' first set of interrogatories

This proposed schedule is based upon the assumption that parties will submit to one another their responses to the other parties' first set of interrogatories, first requests for production of documents, and the documents which are responsive to the other parties' first discovery requests no later than September 22, 2006.

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Case 1:05-cv-00776-MMS

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and first requests for production of documents, which were due on September 8, 2006, because it has not yet received responsive information from all of the various sources within the United States Department of Agriculture. Plaintiffs have deferred responding to the Government's first set of interrogatories and first requests for production of documents, which were initially due on August 31, 2006, until September 22, 2006, because of defendant's inability to respond to plaintiffs' discovery requests by their due date. Plaintiffs' counsel has indicated that the plaintiffs' expert witnesses will be unable to provide their expert reports, which are currently due on October 13, 2006, until November 1, 2006, because of the Government's delay in providing plaintiffs with its first discovery response. The extension of the due date for the submission of plaintiffs' expert reports requires the extension of the succeeding pretrial due dates because of the inter-dependent nature of these pretrial proceedings. For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully request the Court to grant the Government's motion. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General

/s/ David M. Cohen DAVID M. COHEN Director

Case 1:05-cv-00776-MMS

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OF COUNSEL: DARLENE BOLINGER United States Department of Agriculture Office of General Counsel 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250

/s/ Sheryl L. Floyd SHERYL L. FLOYD Senior Trial Counsel Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 8th Floor 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 307-0282 Facsimile: (202) 514-8624 Attorneys for Defendant

SEPTEMBER 12, 2006

Case 1:05-cv-00776-MMS

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on this 12th day of SEPTEMBER, 2006, a copy of this "DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF PRETRIAL SCHEDULE" was filed e1ectronicaly. 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/ Sheryl L. Floyd