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

Case 1:02-cv-00024-FMA

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UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS PUEBLO OF LAGUNA, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,) Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 02-24L Judge Francis M. Allegra

JOINT STATUS REPORT ON RECORD INDEXATION AND RECORD REVIEW Plaintiff, the Pueblo of Laguna, and Defendant, the United States, (the "parties"), hereby jointly report to the Court regarding their progress on an indexation plan to be submitted to the Court and on other matters. I. INDEXATION PLAN STATUS Counsel for the parties met in Albuquerque January 25 and 26, 2005 to work on indexation and other discovery and document retention issues. On January 26, 2005, the parties met at one of the offices of the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") in Albuquerque to assess the indexation, production, and movement of certain active trust records from that office to the Farmington, New Mexico BLM office. Plaintiff asserts that, because the files at the BLM office were otherwise unindexed and had not been inventoried previously (notwithstanding the Defendants obligation as a trustee to have made, preserved, and made available to Plaintiff in a useful manner such records of Plaintiff's trust assets in the possession, custody, or control of Defendant and its agencies), Plaintiff has spent several additional days at the BLM office inventorying the collection and 1

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marking documents for production. Defendant asserts that it has made available, and will continue to make available, to Plaintiff the nonprivileged documents that it requests to review for the litigation. Also, Defendant asserts that the discussion and review of the documents at the BLM location were part of the parties' provisionally agreed-upon method for addressing the indexing or inventorying of documents at various agency locations and that Defendant would image other documents potentially relevant to the Pueblo of Laguna identified at the BLM Albuquerque offices. It is Defendant's understanding that Plaintiff also wished to inventory further other records at the BLM offices that do not appear to be directly related to the Pueblo of Laguna, including records of the Navajo Nation. Nonetheless, Defendant acceded to Plaintiff's wish to create its own inventory of these records. Plaintiff notes, for example, that the Navajo Nation has had significant oil, gas, and uranium development on its trust lands and that such natural resources are central to these cases. While Plaintiff does not wish to burden the Defendant with reproducing documents that may be needed depending on how this case proceeds, Plaintiff asserts both a need and a right to know what documents are available and where. Such documents relating to

contemporaneous price, production, and market information for uranium (whether tribal, federal, or private) proximate to Plaintiff's trust lands are relevant to the Secretary's obligation to determine the proper value of resources. Managerial regimes for resources similar to the Plaintiff's are also relevant. The parties expect that the review at the Albuquerque BLM office will provide useful "real world" experience as they continue to discuss the possibility of using on-site review as a part of an indexation plan to be proposed to the Court. In the December 7, 2004 status 2

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report, the parties informed the Court of Defendant's proposal to use such on-site reviews "to address the sufficiency of existing indices and to discuss what additional indexing, if any, would be appropriate for each collection." Plaintiff expects to propose revisions to the draft indexation plan that Defendant provided to Plaintiff on October 22, 2004, based on the BLM review. On January 25, 2005, the parties discussed a wide range of issues, including the adequacy of the Box Information Search System ("BISS") database. Plaintiff will reduce its concerns to writing and the parties will attempt to work cooperatively to address those concerns. Unresolved issues may be brought to the Court's attention. II. OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS ("OTR") DOCUMENT REVIEW Since the last status report, Plaintiff completed its review of boxes designated in May and June 2004. On February 10, 2005, Plaintiff began review of approximately 600 additional boxes at the OTR Renaissance facility in Albuquerque. These boxes are central office boxes that Defendant recently discovered had not been indexed in the BISS database. Rather than wait for indexing, Plaintiff agreed to review the collection in its entirety. On February 11, 2005, Plaintiff provided to Defendant a list of supplemental designations for review. This list is comprised of approximately 1,000 boxes that have been indexed since Plaintiff's original designations in May and June 2004 and therefore were not available for designation at that time. III. OTHER ISSUES Finally, as the Court was advised during the telephonic conference call on November 8, 2004, the parties have agreed to carve out one significant issue in an attempt to move it up 3

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on the ADR calendar. The ADR Judge, the Honorable Eric G. Bruggink, has agreed to meet with the parties on March 11, 2005 to discuss that issue and a schedule for its possible resolution. Judge Bruggink has entered an ADR order regarding the March 11, 2005 meeting in his chambers. The parties shall report further to the Court on these matters of indexation and production of documents on or before April 1, 2005. Respectfully submitted this 11th day of February, 2005.

s/Alan R. Taradash Alan R. Taradash Nordhaus, Haltom, Taylor, Taradash & Bladh, LLP 405 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. NE Albuquerque, NM 87102-3541 telephone: 505-243-4275 facsimile: 505-243-4464 Attorney of Record for Plaintiff Thomas J. Peckham Daniel I.S.J. Rey-Bear Deidre A. Lujan Rodina C. Cave Nordhaus, Haltom, Taylor, Taradash & Bladh, LLP 405 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Ave NE Albuquerque, NM 87102 telephone 505-243-4275 Of Counsel

s/Robert W. Rodrigues Robert Rodrigues U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division General Litigation Section P.O. Box 663 Washington, DC 20044-0663 telephone: 202-305-0484 facsimile: 202-305-0506 Attorney of Record for Defendant

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Donald H. Grove Nordhaus, Haltom, Taylor Taradash & Bladh, LLP Suite 801 1401 K Street NW Washington, DC 20005 telephone 202-530-1270 Of Counsel

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