Free Motion for Leave to File - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00400-FMA

Document 71

Filed 03/27/2008

Page 1 of 3

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS

MICHAEL W. STOVALL, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

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Electronic Filing No. 05-400C (Judge Allegra)

MOTION TO FILE DEFENDANT'S STATUS REPORT

Defendant, the United States, respectfully requests leave to file its own status report in response to the Court's January 9, 2008 order requiring the parties to submit a joint status report on or before March 28, 2008. Counsel for the defendant has attempted to contact counsel for the plaintiff to obtain his position upon this motion, but all attempts at contact have gone unreturned. In its order dated January 9, 2008, the Court ordered the parties to conduct certain limited discovery, set the close of fact discovery at March 14, 2008, and directed the parties to file a joint status report "on or before March 28, 2008 . . . indicating how this case should proceed, with a proposed schedule, as appropriate." Discovery in this case closed on March 14, 2008, but the plaintiff did not complete the ordered discovery because plaintiff's counsel failed to appear at the scheduled depositions. Also, plaintiff's counsel has not returned any of defendant's counsel's telephone calls, e-mail messages, or facsimile transmissions. We are unable to file a joint status report at this time because plaintiff's counsel cannot be located.

Case 1:05-cv-00400-FMA

Document 71

Filed 03/27/2008

Page 2 of 3

For these reasons, the United States respectfully requests that the Court grant it leave to file its own status report. The defendant's status report is attached to this motion as Exhibit 1. (Please note that attached to the defendant's status report as exhibit 1 is a declaration in support of the status report, and the declaration has its own exhibits A-G). If the Court grants our motion, we also respectfully request that the Court direct the Clerk to file Exhibit 1 (with the attached declaration and exhibits) as its own docket entry in this case. Respectfully submitted, JEFFREY S. BUCHOLTZ Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director s/ Deborah A. Bynum (by P. McCarthy) DEBORAH A. BYNUM Assistant Director s/ Devin A. Wolak DEVIN A. WOLAK Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice 1100 L Street, N.W. Attn: Classification Unit, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20530 Tel. (202) 616-0170 Fax (202) 514-8624 March 27, 2008 Attorneys for Defendant

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Case 1:05-cv-00400-FMA

Document 71

Filed 03/27/2008

Page 3 of 3

CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on March 27, 2008, a copy of the foregoing "MOTION TO FILE DEFENDANT'S STATUS REPORT" 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/ Devin A. Wolak