Free Motion for Extension of Time to File Answer - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00708-CFL

Document 8

Filed 10/13/2005

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS

SCOTT TIMBER, INC., Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

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No. 05-708C (Judge Lettow)

DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME TO FILE ANSWER Pursuant to Rule 6(b)(1) and 6.1 of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims ("RCFC"), defendant, the United States, respectfully requests a 50-day enlargement of time, through and including December 2, 2005, within which to file its response to the complaint. Our response is currently due on October 13, 2005. This is our second request for an enlargement of time for this purpose; the Court previously granted an enlargement of 45 days. Counsel for the Government contacted the plaintiff through its counsel and he indicated that plaintiff does not oppose this motion. The enlargement is requested because the undersigned counsel of record for defendant has not yet received a litigation report from the interested agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as required by 28 U.S.C. § 520. This is due to several factors. First, in the past month, many agency personnel were detailed to the Hurricane Katrina and Rita sites to provide disaster relief. They have just recently returned to their offices in Oregon. Because this case involves three separate sales, the litigation report will be quite voluminous and will take more time than usual to compile. Additionally, the agency is currently preparing responses to discovery in Scott Timber,

Case 1:05-cv-00708-CFL

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Filed 10/13/2005

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Inc. v. United States, case no. 05-604C, and Swanson Group, Inc. v. United States, case no. 05170C, which is consolidated with Swanson Group Inc. v. United States, case no. 05-171C. The same agency counsel and many of the same agency personnel are assigned to those cases as well as this case. Thus, their workload is heavy at the moment. Further, the undersigned will be out of the office October 14-19, 2005 and November 313, 2005, and has bid protest duty from November 14-24, 2005. The undersigned and agency counsel are working together to ensure that the litigation report will be completed no later than November 18, 2005, and that it will be provided to the undersigned immediately thereafter. The additional time is necessary to allow sufficient time for agency counsel to complete the litigation report and for counsel to review the litigation report and prepare the Government's response to the complaint. For these reasons, defendant respectfully requests that the Court grant this unopposed motion for an enlargement of time. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director

s/Kathryn A. Bleecker KATHRYN A. BLEECKER Assistant Director

Case 1:05-cv-00708-CFL

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Filed 10/13/2005

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s/Lindsay E. Williams LINDSAY WILLIAMS Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Phone: (202) 353-7995 Fax: (202) 514-8624 October 13, 2005 Attorneys for Defendant