Free Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00400-FMA

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS MICHAEL W. STOVALL, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Electronic Filing No. 05-400C (Judge Allegra)

STATUS REPORT AND MOTION TO REOPEN DISCOVERY FOR LIMITED PURPOSES On behalf of both parties, and with the concurrence of counsel for plaintiff, Michael W. Stovall, the United States respectfully submits the following Status Report And Motion To Reopen Discovery For Limited Purposes in response to this Court's April 26, 2007, amendment to the Scheduling Order. I. Motion To Reopen Discovery For Limited Purposes

As we indicated in our July 10, 2007 Unopposed Motion For An Enlargement Of Time, the parties' recent discussions about this case have identified a few discovery issues, some of which relate to prior discovery, others which have arisen during the parties' joint attempt to resolve this case by agreement. So that the parties may complete the tasks listed below, which they submit are necessary so that the plaintiff will have all the information it needs to establish his case (and, if an agreement can be reached, the defendant will need to recommend a settlement), the parties request that discovery in this case be reopened through August 31, 2007. (1) Plaintiff has requested the depositions of (a) Carolyn Cooksie, current

Deputy Administrator for FSA Farm Loan Programs; (b) Johnny Toles, the current

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Director of Civil Rights at the FSA; and (c) Clyde Thompson, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the USDA Office of Civil Rights. The defendant has furnished the plaintiff with each of these individual's dates of availability. Based upon recent deposition testimony from the plaintiff, the defendant has determined that it would be advisable to conduct a brief deposition of Mr. Lloyd Wright, former director of the USDA Office of Civil Rights, upon limited topics not addressed in any of the affidavits he has provided to the plaintiff. All of these depositions will be completed no later than August 31, 2007. (2) The parties agree that the plaintiff should be permitted to disclose one

expert who will opine generally upon the losses suffered by Mr. Stovall's allegedly lost opportunity to build the chicken houses he had planned for his farm. The plaintiff will make such disclosure no later than Friday, July 27, 2007. The defendant will then require time to review the report and, if appropriate, obtain a rebuttal report. Such rebuttal report shall be disclosed no later than August 17, 2007. Any depositions of these experts shall take place no later than Friday, August 31, 2007. (3) The parties each owe the other responses or supplemental responses to

certain written discovery, and the parties agree that all such responses or supplemental responses shall be served on or before Friday, July 27, 2007. II. Status Report (1) At the plaintiff's request, the defendant is evaluating, in conjunction

with the officials possessing the power to authorize it, whether to submit this case

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to ADR. The parties would like to be able to complete discovery prior to the commencement of any ADR proceeding. If the defendant agrees that ADR is appropriate in this case, the parties will submit an appropriate motion to the Court concerning the scheduling of the ADR proceeding. Otherwise, the plaintiff will file a motion with the Court seeking an order for mediation. (2) If ADR is unsuccessful, the parties will file a motion seeking a

schedule for further proceedings. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director /s/ Deborah A. Bynum 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 July 13, 2007 Attorneys for Defendant

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on July 13, 2007, a copy of the foregoing "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 DEVIN A. WOLAK