Free Joint Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00231-EJD

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS No. 05-231 T (Chief Judge Damich) ______________________________ JZ Buckingham Investments LLC as Tax Matters Partner of JBJZ Partners, a South Carolina general partnership, Plaintiff, v. United States of America, Defendant. __________________________ JOINT STATUS REPORT

In conformance with the Court's Order dated December 19, 2005, the parties submit this Joint Status Report: 1. The Panel for Multi District Litigation has styled the matters formerly designated as Carmel Partners, et al v. United States, No. 1:04-1661 (S.D. Ind.), Gary Woods, etc. v. United States, No. 5:05-216 (W.D. Texas), and Gary Woods, etc. v. United States, No. 5:05-217 (W.D. Texas), collectively as In re COBRA Tax Shelters Litigation, 1:05-ml9727-JDT-WTL; 2. The MDL has been assigned to the U.S. District Judge John D. Tinder of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana;

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3.

Counsel of JZ Buckingham Investments, LLC is also counsel for Gary Woods in the MDL proceedings;

4.

Plaintiffs' counsel has notified Judge Tinder of the intention to coordinate discovery in this matter with discovery in the MDL proceeding;

5.

The United States' Motion to Expand Discovery Limits in In re COBRA Tax Shelters Litigation has been fully briefed, and the parties are now awaiting scheduling of oral argument by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. All of the Petitioners in the MDL are opposing the Government's motion;

6.

On February 28, 2006, the parties filed a Proposed Case Management Plan with the Southern District of Indiana specifying the following deadlines: a. Petitioners and Respondent will each file their Preliminary Witness and Exhibit Lists no later than March 21, 2006; b. Petitioners shall file any amended pleadings or shall add any further parties no later than June 1, 2006; c. Petitioners shall file any settlement demand no later than March 21, 2006, and Respondent shall respond no later than 30 days therefrom; d. Petitioners and Respondent shall make all expert disclosures no later than November 15, 2006, and all rebuttal expert disclosures no later than December 15, 2006; e. Any motions to exclude or limit expert testimony shall be made on or before February 1, 2007. f. Final Witness and Exhibit lists shall be filed no later than February 1, 2007;

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g. h. i.

All discovery shall be complete as of February 1, 2007; All dispositive motions shall be made on or before April 1, 2007; All of the Petitioners requested that trial of their respective actions be set for June, 2007.

j.

Given that there are at least three (and possibly more) COBRA tax shelter cases that the United States must be fully prepared to try at the conclusion of discovery, and given the amount of trial preparation and coordination that will be required for all of these actions, the United States requests that the first trial in these cases be scheduled no earlier than September 2007, with trial dates to be scheduled sequentially thereafter for the remaining actions in three month intervals.

Respectfully submitted,

s/ Joel Norris Crouch JOEL NORRIS CROUCH Meadows Owens Collier Reed Cousins & Blau LLP 901 Main Street, Suite 3700 Dallas, TX 75202 (214) 744-3700 [email protected] Attorney of Record for Plaintiff

s/ Dennis M. Donohue DENNIS M. DONOHUE Attorney of Record for the United States U.S. Department of Justice - Tax Division Post Office Box 403 Ben Franklin Station -31568382.1

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Washington, D.C. 20044 (202) 307-6492 EILEEN J. O'CONNOR Assistant Attorney General MILDRED L. SEIDMAN Chief, Court of Federal Claims Section DAVID GUSTAFSON Assistant Chief

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on March 1, 2006, I electronically filed the foregoing Status Report with the Clerk of the Court using the ECF system which will send notification of such filing to the following: Joel N. Crouch Texas State Bar No. 05144220 Meadows, Owens, Collier, Reed Cousins & Blau, L.L.P. 901 Main Street, Suite 3700 Dallas, Texas 75202 s/ David M. Steiner David M. Steiner Trial Attorney, Tax Division U.S. Department of Justice Post Office Box 55 Ben Franklin Station Washington, D.C. 20044 (202) 307-5892

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