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

Case 1:05-cv-00179-TCW

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Filed 12/21/2007

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS

SWANSON GROUP, INC., Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES,

Defendant.

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Case No. 05-179C (Judge Wheeler)

JOINT STATUS REPORT Pursuant to the Court's Order filed November 28, 2007, the parties submit the following joint status report.

On June 11, 2007, the Court granted the parties' request that discovery in this case be stayed until July 20, 2007 while the parties engaged in settlement discussions. On June 8, 2007, plaintiff submitted a counter settlement proposal to defendant's settlement proposal dated May 22, 2007. On July 17, 2007, plaintiff received another settlement proposal from defendant. On August 20, 2007, counsel of record for the government was provided with a letter from plaintiff raising certain apparent clerical and computational errors pertaining to the government's last substantive communication with counsel for Swanson regarding possible settlement of this action. By letter dated November 13, 2007, and forwarded to plaintiff on November 14, 2007, the government responded in part to issues raised in the letter of August 20, 2007. On November 28, 2007, plaintiff provided a settlement proposal to defendant to which defendant responded on December 17, 2007. Plaintiff is currently reviewing that proposal.

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Case 1:05-cv-00179-TCW

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As set forth in previous status reports, the settlement process in this case has become somewhat more complicated because the parties have combined their efforts to settle this case with their efforts to settle two other Swanson Group timber sale suspension cases pending in this Court before Judge Smith (Swanson Group, Inc. v. United States, COFC Nos. 170C and 171C). Both Swanson and the United States would like to reach agreement on a global settlement including all three Swanson cases. The parties continue to believe that settlement of this case and the two cases before Judge Smith is possible. However, in order to accomplish this objective, the parties request more time to do so. Accordingly, the parties respectfully request that the Court enter an Order to provide that discovery in this case should continue to be stayed and in light of the intervening holidays that the parties file a joint status report on or before Friday, February 8, 2008 informing the Court of the progress of settlement discussions.

Respectfully submitted,

s/Gary G. Stevens SALTMAN & STEVENS P.C. 1801 K Street, N.W. Suite M110 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 452-2140 Counsel for Plaintiff

PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director s/Bryant G. Snee 2

Case 1:05-cv-00179-TCW

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BRYANT G. SNEE Deputy Director

OF COUNSEL: MARCUS WAH Senior 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: December 21, 2007

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