Free Motion to Compel - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00231-EJD

Document 130-2

Filed 11/15/2007

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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.

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DECLARATION OF DAVID STEINER IN SUPPORT OF UNITED STATES' MOTION TO COMPEL RESPONSES TO INTERROGATORIES

DAVID M. STEINER, an attorney duly admitted to practice before this Court, hereby declares, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, as follows: 1. I am a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice and am one of the attorneys responsible for defending the interests of the United States in this matter. I submit this declaration in support of the United States' Motion to Compel Responses to Interrogatories. On September 25, 2007, the United States served its Fourth Set of Interrogatories (Nos. 71 through 95) on Plaintiff. On or about October 26, 2007, Plaintiff served Plaintiff's Objections and Responses to the United States' Interrogatories (Nos. 71 through 95), annexed hereto. Plaintiff did not respond to any of the interrogatories. Rather, Plaintiff responded to each interrogatory thusly: Plaintiff objects to this Interrogatory on the grounds that the United States has well exceeded the 100 written interrogatories that it may serve upon a party to this litigation without leave of court or written stipulation under Rule 33 of the Rules of the Court of
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Case 1:05-cv-00231-EJD

Document 130-2

Filed 11/15/2007

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Federal Claims, and no such leave of court or stipulation has been obtained. Plaintiff hereby reserves its right to assert any additional objections to this Interrogatory in the event that the Court grants the United States leave to propound additional interrogatories or otherwise orders Plaintiff to respond to this Interrogatory. 5. On October 30, October 31, November 1 and November 6, counsel for the United States and Plaintiff discussed Plaintiff's objection, via telephone and e-mail, without reaching a resolution. Not until November 6 did Plaintiff explain to the United States its objections with any specificity. As Plaintiff acknowledges, the United States may propound up to 100 per party in the cases involving the COBRA tax shelter. It is the position of the United States that it has served 93 such interrogatories on Plaintiff. This is because, prior to the interrogatories at issue in this motion, the United States had served 68 such interrogatories. The United States erroneously numbered the first interrogatory in the interrogatories at issue as #71.

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I, David M. Steiner, declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on November 15, 2007.

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 Telephone: (202) 307-5892

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Case 1:05-cv-00231-EJD

Document 130-2

Filed 11/15/2007

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on November 15th, 2007, I electronically filed the foregoing Declaration 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, 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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