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

Case 1:98-cv-00484-JPW

Document 294

Filed 03/23/2007

Page 1 of 3

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS __________________________________________ ) NORTHERN STATES POWER COMPANY, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) No. 98-484C ) (Senior Judge Wiese) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) Defendant. ) __________________________________________) DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR ENLARGEMENT OF TIME Pursuant to Rule 6(b) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims, defendant respectfully requests an enlargement of time of one business day, to and including March 26, 2007, within which to file its post-trial brief. Defendant's post-trial brief is currently due today, March 23, 2007. This is defendant's first request for an enlargement of time for this purpose. Counsel for plaintiff, Northern States Power Company ("NSP"), has indicated that NSP has no objection to the Government's motion for an enlargement but, in light of the Government's motion, may subsequently need to file a motion to enlarge the time for NSP to file its post-trial reply brief. The requested enlargement is necessary because of the involvement of each of the attorneys on the Government's spent nuclear fuel team in complying with an order, issued by Chief Judge Damich in Dairyland Power Co. v. United States (Fed. Cl. 04-0106), to produce hundreds of thousands of pages of documents no later than March 23, 2007. Although we are seeking relief from that deadline, we have been required to devote significant resources in our effort to comply as much as possible with it. The Government's attorneys, consultants, and litigation support contractor are actively involved in reviewing these documents for privilege, identifying the specific requests to which each group of documents responsive, and preparing the

Case 1:98-cv-00484-JPW

Document 294

Filed 03/23/2007

Page 2 of 3

documents for production. As of the filing of this motion, more than 50,000 documents have been reviewed, and several thousand still remain. For the foregoing reasons, defendant respectfully requests that the Court grant our request for an enlargement of time of one business day, to and including March 26, 2006, within which to file our post-trial brief. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/Harold D. Lester, Jr. HAROLD D. LESTER, JR. Assistant Director OF COUNSEL: JANE K. TAYLOR Office of General Counsel U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20585 s/Andrew P. Averbach ANDREW P. AVERBACH Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice 1100 L Street, N.W. Attn: Classification Unit, 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 353-0527 Fax: (202) 305-2118 Attorneys for Defendant

March 23, 2007

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Case 1:98-cv-00484-JPW

Document 294

Filed 03/23/2007

Page 3 of 3

CERTIFICATE OF FILING AND SERVICE I hereby certify that on this 23rd day of March, 2007, a copy of the foregoing "DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR ENLARGEMENT OF TIME" 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/Andrew P. Averbach