Free Motion for Extension of Time to File Response/Reply - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:98-cv-00621-ECH

Document 313

Filed 05/07/2004

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY and EXELON GENERATION COMPANY, LLC, Plaintiffs, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 98-621C, 04-103C (Judge Hewitt)

DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME OF ONE BUSINESS DAY Defendant, the United States, respectfully requests that the Court grant an enlargement of three days (or one business day), to and including May 10, 2004, for defendant to file its reply to plaintiffs' response to the Government's motion for supplemental fact discovery. Pursuant to this Court's order dated March 19, 2004, although plaintiffs' response was filed on May 3, 2004, the Government's reply is due on May 7, 2004. We have not previously requested an enlargement of time for this purpose. We attempted to contact counsel for plaintiff, Norman Hirsch, regarding this motion and left him a voicemail message regarding this motion, but, because of the time at which we determined we would not be able to complete our reply by the current due date, he was unavailable. Counsel for defendant has been responsible for multiple filings that were due today, including preparation of the Government's portion of the a joint report in response to a request from the Court during an April 30, 2004 status conference in approximately 45 of the most recently filed spent nuclear fuel cases before Judge Sypolt, summarizing the parties' positions from the status conference, to be filed today in cases before Chief Judge Damich and Judge

Case 1:98-cv-00621-ECH

Document 313

Filed 05/07/2004

Page 2 of 4

Sypolt., and coordination of the preparation of that joint filing with counsel for plaintiffs; the preparation of four Joint Preliminary Status Reports in Entergy Nuclear Generation Company v. United States, No. 03-2626C (Fed. Cl.); Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 2 v. United States, No. 032622C (Fed. Cl.); Systems Fuels, Inc. v. United States, No. 03-2623C (Fed. Cl.); and Systems Fuels, Inc. v. United States, No. 03-2624C (Fed. Cl.); the preparation of answers in Southern Nuclear Operating Co. v. United States, No. 98-614C (Fed. Cl.), and Exelon Generation, LLC v. United States, No. 04-104C (Fed. Cl.); oversight responsibility for the negotiation and preparation of a proposed pre-trial schedule in the Southern Nuclear case; and oversight responsibility for the preparation of a fifth JPSR in PPL Susquehana v. United States, No. 04-70C (Fed. Cl.). In addition, counsel for defendant is responsible for several substantive briefs that must be filed on Monday, May 10, 2004, regarding four motions in limine and a motion to substitute an expert witness in Yankee Atomic Electric Co. v. United States, No. 98-126C (Fed. Cl.), that required significant attention during the day on May 7, 2004. The filings that were due today took a significantly longer period of time to complete than counsel had anticipated, and he simply has been unable to complete the work necessary to file the Government's reply to plaintiff's response to the motion to supplemental fact discovery. We respectfully request an additional business day to complete that filing and will make every effort to file it with the Court as early on the day on Monday, May 10, 2004, as possible. Because the Court's conference with the parties to discuss matters pending in the case is scheduled for May 14, 2004, and because our reply to the plaintiff's response should not be lengthy, we do not believe that this request will prejudice plaintiffs.

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Case 1:98-cv-00621-ECH

Document 313

Filed 05/07/2004

Page 3 of 4

For the reasons stated herein, defendant respectfully requests that the Court grant defendant's motion for an enlargement of time. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General s/David M. Cohen DAVID M. COHEN Director s/Harold D. Lester, Jr. HAROLD D. LESTER, JR. Assistant Director Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 8th Floor 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 305-7562 Fax: (202) 307-2503

OF COUNSEL: MARTHA CROSLAND JANE K. TAYLOR Office of General Counsel U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20585 SHARON A. SNYDER Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Washington, D.C. 20530 May 7, 2004

Attorneys for Defendant

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Case 1:98-cv-00621-ECH

Document 313

Filed 05/07/2004

Page 4 of 4

CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on this 7th day of May, 2004, a copy of foregoing "DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME OF ONE BUSINESS DAY" was filed electronically. I understand that notice of this filing will be sent to all parties by operation of the Court's electronic filing system. Parties may access this filing through the Court's system.

s/Harold D. Lester, Jr.