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

Case 1:05-cv-00708-CFL

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS

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

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No. 05-708C (Judge Lettow)

JOINT MOTION TO AMEND THE COURT'S SCHEDULING ORDER OF DECEMBER 14, 2006 On December 14, 2006, the Court amended the pre-trial schedule in this action to provide for the following dates: Event Fact Discovery on Liability Exchange of Expert Reports Exchange of Rebuttal Expert Reports Deposition of Expert Witnesses Deadline March 23, 2007 April 27, 2007 May 18, 2007 June 27, 2007

The parties are requested to file a Joint Status Report on or before June 29, 2007.

For the reasons set forth more fully below, the parties request that the Court amend its December 14, 2006 scheduling order to allow approximately 14 additional days for the completion of foregoing pre-trial matters as follows:

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Event Fact Discovery on Liability Exchange of Expert Reports Exchange of Rebuttal Expert Reports Deposition of Expert Witnesses

Deadline April 6, 2007 May 11, 2007 June 1, 2007 July 6, 2007

The parties are requested to file a Joint Status Report on or before July 13, 2007.

This is the parties' fourth request for enlargement of these deadlines.

Since the Court's scheduling order of December 14, 2006, plaintiff has completed its planned depositions for fact witnesses on January 3-5 and 8-11, 2007. Some additional documents not previously produced by defendant were identified in these depositions and plaintiff has requested the production of these documents, but defendant has not yet responded. Plaintiff needs the enlargement requested by this motion in order to pursue these outstanding document requests, to attempt to resolve concerns it has with defendant's interrogatory responses, and to conduct limited follow-up discovery, if necessary. Plaintiff's counsel has arranged to have plaintiff's documents in response to defendant's request for production brought to plaintiff's counsel's office in Washington, D.C. for defendant's counsel's review. These documents have been available for defendant's counsel's review since December 11, 2006, but defendant's counsel's schedule has not allowed her an opportunity to review these documents until this month. The parties have agreed that defendant's counsel's review will take place on March 8, 2007. Defendant's counsel anticipates that defendant will want to take two or more depositions following its review of these documents. The parties have tentatively agreed to 2

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complete these depositions during April 3-6, 2007. Because of the lack of witness availability and the respective travel schedules of both counsel it was not possible to schedule defendant's depositions at any earlier date. Accordingly, counsel for both parties believe that the remaining fact discovery in this case can be completed on or before April 6, 2007, and, therefore, request an approximately two-week enlargement of the previous deadlines set forth above.

Respectfully submitted,

s/Gary G. Stevens SALTMAN & STEVENS, P.C. 1801 K Street, N.W. Suite M-110 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 452-2140 (202) 775-8217 ­ facsimile Counsel for Plaintiff

PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/Kathryn A. Bleecker KATHRYN A. BLEECKER Assistant Director

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OF COUNSEL: JAMES ALEXANDER Associate Regional Attorney USDA-OGC, Pacific Region

s/Joan M. Stentiford JOAN M. STENTIFORD Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit, 8th Floor 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Phone: (202) 616-0341 Fax: (202) 514-8624 Counsel for Defendant

Dated: March 2, 2007

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