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

Case 1:98-cv-00484-JPW

Document 224

Filed 12/07/2004

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS (Electronically Filed on December 7, 2004) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

NORTHERN STATES POWER COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

No. 98-484C (Senior Judge Wiese)

JOINT STATUS REPORT Plaintiff Northern States Power Company ("NSP") and Defendant (the "Government") respectfully submit this joint status report in response to the conference call held in this matter on November 16, 2004. As directed at that conference, counsel for the parties met and conferred regarding an appropriate date for the submission of a claim letter in sufficient detail to permit the Government to conduct an audit of the costs incurred by NSP that it seeks to recover in this action. NSP will be prepared to submit such a claim letter to the Government on or before April 1, 2005. The purpose of the claim letter is to enable the Government to understand the components of NSP's claim and the costs incurred to date by NSP which it contends are attributable to the Government's breach, with the goal of enabling the parties to stipulate prior to trial as to the amount of costs incurred (the Government reserves its rights to contest that any costs are properly attributable to the Government). The parties have agreed that the claim letter will be supported by copies of books and records from NSP's files to support costs incurred above a threshold figure of $5,000 (five

Case 1:98-cv-00484-JPW

Document 224

Filed 12/07/2004

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thousand dollars). To the maximum practicable extent, the documents will be organized into binders corresponding with each of the components of NSP's claim. The parties agree that this claim letter does not constitute an expert report as to NSP's damages, which expert report will be prepared and submitted at a later date to be established by the Court, along with other pre-trial deadlines, as discussed during the November 16, 2004 conference with the Court. In light of the above, Plaintiff's counsel respectfully requests that the Court convene a status conference at the earliest convenient date to formalize the parties' agreement with respect to the NSP claim letter, and to establish other pre-trial deadlines, consistent with the instructions provided by the Court during the November 16 conference. As counsel for Defendant discussed at the parties' most recent telephonic status conference, Defendant had anticipated that, after it received Plaintiff's damages claim, it would provide that claim to its experts for assistance in determining, based upon the level of detail and support in the claim, the amount of effort and time that would be necessary to develop a complete response to it. Although Defendant had not anticipated during the parties' most recent status conference that Plaintiff would need until April 2005 to complete its damages submission, Defendant continues to believe that it is most appropriate to await Plaintiff's damages submission before scheduling the additional time that will be necessary to respond to it.

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Case 1:98-cv-00484-JPW

Document 224

Filed 12/07/2004

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Dated: December 7, 2004 Of Counsel: Jay E. Silberg Devon E. Hewitt Michael G. Lepre Walter F. Zenner Daniel S. Herzfeld Jack Y. Chu SHAW PITTMAN LLP 2300 N Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 (202) 663-8000 (202) 663-8007 (fax)

Respectfully submitted, s/ Alex D. Tomaszczuk by s/ Jack Y. Chu Alex D. Tomaszczuk SHAW PITTMAN LLP 1650 Tysons Boulevard McLean, VA 22102 (703) 770-7940 (703) 770-7901 (fax) Counsel of Record for Plaintiff Northern States Power Company

PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/ Harold D. Lester, Jr. by s/ Jack Y. Chu HAROLD D. LESTER, JR. Assistant Director OF COUNSEL: JANE K. TAYLOR MARTHA S. CROSLAND Office of General Counsel U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20585 s/ R. Alan Miller by s/ Jack Y. Chu R. Alan Miller 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) 616-0383 Fax: (202) 307-2503 Attorneys for Defendant

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