Free Motion for Extension of Time to Complete Discovery - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:04-cv-00830-LJB

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS CARPENTER CONTRACTING, INC., Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 04-830C (Judge Lynn J. Bush)

DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME Defendant respectfully requests an enlargement of time of 6 months, to and including October 28, 2005, within which to complete fact discovery. Pursuant to the Court's order dated

December 27, 2004, the deadline for completing fact discovery is April 29, 2004. We notified counsel for the plaintiff of our

intent to request an enlargement of time and he informed us that the plaintiff will not oppose this, our first request for an enlargement of time for this purpose. The case is proceeding more slowly than anticipated, mainly because of illnesses, and formal fact discovery has not yet begun. Instead of conducting formal discovery, the parties have

focused on resolving this dispute through Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR"). Pursuant to the established pilot program,

the Court referred this case to Judge Christine Miller for an early evaluation. At the initial ADR meeting, the parties and

Judge Miller agreed that the United States should obtain an audit from Defense Contract Auditing Agency ("DCAA"). The DCAA audit

should determine whether Carpenter Contracting possesses

Case 1:04-cv-00830-LJB

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documents to support its claims.

ADR Judge Miller informed the

parties that she would "hold" the case and not send the case back to the trial judge. Completing the DCAA audit has taken an unexpectedly long time. The United States understands that Carpenter Contracting

is a relatively small business run by two individuals, who are husband and wife: Mr. Carpenter and Mrs. Carpenter. Unfortunately, both Mr. Carpenter and Mrs. Carpenter suffered significant illnesses in December 2004 and January 2005. These

illnesses, which required hospitalization, prevented them from meeting with the DCAA auditor, Mr. Kim Hensley. After Mr. Hensley scheduled a meeting to obtain supporting documents from Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, he, himself, was hospitalized with an illness. This sickness, in turn, made

Mr. Hensley unable to meet with the Carpenters. Mr. Hensley finally met with the Carpenters on April 6, 2005. When the parties met with ADR Judge Miller, no one Mr. Hensley

anticipated the long delay in completing the audit.

anticipates that he can complete his audit by May 20, 2005. The case has largely been awaiting the completion of the DCAA audit. For example, the parties have not issued any formal

requests for production, requests for admissions or interrogatories. The parties, however, have voluntarily The parties have not completed

exchanged some documents.

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document discovery or conducted any depositions. The parties anticipated that after Mr. Hensley completed the DCAA audit, ADR Judge Miller would meet with them again. meeting would allow a neutral party to evaluate the case.1 For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully request that this motion be granted and the time for completing fact discovery be enlarged until October 28, 2005. In addition, we respectfully This

request that the Court change the date for submitting a status report from May 13, 2005 to November 14, 2005.

Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/ James M. Kinsella JAMES M. KINSELLA Deputy Director OF COUNSEL: CHARLES A. BRIGGS Trial Attorney Department of the Army Memphis District Corps of Engineers 167 North Main St. B-202 Memphis, TN 38103-1894 S/ Christian J. Moran CHRISTIAN J. MORAN Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 8th Floor 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 307-6299 Fax: (202) 514-7969 Attorneys for Defendant

April 29, 2005

The United States cannot state whether it believes settlement will be likely. 3

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