Sierra Club v. United States Department of Agriculture et al

Filing 57

STIPULATION AND ORDER: The Case Management Conference set for July 10, 2009 is off calendar. Cross Motions for Summary Judgment will be heard on February 5, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. Signed by Judge Samuel Conti on 7/2/09. (tdm, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 7/2/2009)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 JOSEPH P. RUSSONIELLO (CSBN 44332) United States Attorney JOANN M. SWANSON (CSBN 88143) Chief, Civil Division MICHAEL T. PYLE (CSBN 172954 ) Assistant United States Attorney U.S. Attorney's Office/Civil Division 450 Golden Gate Avenue, 9th Floor San Francisco, California 94102-3495 Telephone: (415) 436-7322 Facsimile: (415) 436-6748 E-mail: michael.t.pyle@usdoj.gov Attorneys for Federal Defendants UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION SIERRA CLUB, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ET AL., Defendants. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) No. 08-4248 SC STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER TO VACATE CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE AND ENTER ORDER ESTABLISHING SCHEDULE FOR RESOLUTION OF CASE IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED by and between the undersigned, subject to the approval of the Court, that the Case Management Conference currently scheduled for July 10, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. should be vacated and the Court should instead enter an order with a schedule agreed upon by the parties. This stipulation was agreed to by all of the parties (including the Intervening Defendants -- Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. and East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Inc.) for the following reasons. As explained in the Joint Subsequent Case Management Conference Statement filed on July 1, 2009, Defendants and the Intervening Defendants have each spent hundreds of hours reviewing the records at issue in this FOIA case. The records are in excess of 45,000 pages of records. The process is time consuming because many of the records at issue involve various submissions from the Intervening Defendants that potentially implicate S T I P U L A T I O N AND [PROPOSED] ORDER TO VACATE CMC & SET SCHEDULE C 0 8 - 4 2 4 8 SC 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 FOIA Exemption 4 (which concerns trade secret and confidential or proprietary business information). For its part, the Sierra Club has begun to receive boxes of documents and will be spending significant amounts of time to review those records and the records that will be produced in the future. The parties have agreed on a schedule for this litigation and agree, subject, of course, to the Court's approval, that it would be more cost effective and efficient to vacate the CMC and instead enter an order setting forth a schedule for the remainder of the litigation. The Plaintiff and Intervening Defendants (whose counsel would have to travel from Washington, D.C, Texas and Kentucky) would like to avoid the expense of attending a Case Management Conference and understand that the Court states on the Court's website that it does not permit telephonic appearances. The parties represent that they have been working diligently on this case and will continue to do so. They submit that this request is consistent with the proposition that "[t]he FOIA is intended to work without court intervention." Landmark Legal Found v. EPA, 272 F.Supp.2d 70, 85 (D.D.C. 2003). As indicated by the parties' proposed schedule, the parties may ask the Court to rule on certain documents by means of motions for summary judgment so some intervention by the Court may ultimately be necessary. The parties believe, however, that their work to date and the work they will be undertaking in the coming months will greatly reduce the number of potential disputes for the Court to resolve and there is at least a chance that the parties will be able to resolve all of their disputes without any Court intervention. /// /// Respectfully Submitted, July 2, 2009 /s/ William S. Eubanks II William S. Eubanks II Howard M. Crystal Pro hac vice Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal Attorneys for Plaintiff Sierra Club S T I P U L A T I O N AND [PROPOSED] ORDER TO VACATE CMC & SET SCHEDULE C 0 8 - 4 2 4 8 SC 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 /// /// /// /// (d) December 22, 2009 (c) December 4, 2009 (b) November 13, 2009 JOSEPH P. RUSSONIELLO United States Attorney /s/ Michael T. Pyle Michael T. Pyle Assistant U.S. Attorney Attorney for Federal Defendants /s/ James Goldberg James Goldberg Deborah A. Goldfarb Bryan Cave LLP Attorneys for Intervening Defendants Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. and East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Inc. PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED: The Case Management Conference scheduled for July 10, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. is vacated. The parties shall comply with the following schedule for the resolution of the case: (a) September 25, 2009 RUS shall use its best efforts to produce all records responsive to the October 26, 2007 FOIA request and the November 20, 2007 FOIA request, along with its Vaughn Index for all withholdings and redactions for the October 26, 2007 and November 20, 2007 FOIA requests, along with a letter that identifies which records produced are responsive to which categories of Plaintiff's October 26,2007 and November 20, 2007 FOIA requests. Last day for Defendant and/or Intervenor(s) to file a motion for summary judgment. Last day for Plaintiff to file opposition to any motion for summary judgment filed by Defendant and/or Intervenor(s) and last day for Plaintiff to file any cross-motion for summary judgment. Last day for Defendant and/or Intervenor(s) to file reply in support of any motion for summary judgment and last day for Defendant and/or Intervenor(s) to file opposition to any motion for summary judgment filed by Plaintiff. S T I P U L A T I O N AND [PROPOSED] ORDER TO VACATE CMC & SET SCHEDULE C 0 8 - 4 2 4 8 SC 3 1 2 3 4 (e) January 8, 2010 Last day for Plaintiff to file reply in support of its crossmotion for summary judgment. (f) January 29, 2010 at 10 a.m. Hearing on summary judgment motions. February 5, 2010 S S DISTRICT TE C TA 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ER N F D IS T IC T O R S T I P U L A T I O N AND [PROPOSED] ORDER TO VACATE CMC & SET SCHEDULE C 0 8 - 4 2 4 8 SC 4 A C LI 7 FO HON. SAMUELSaCONTI el Conti United States Judge mu Chief Judge District NO R NIA 6 2 DATED: July __, 2009 UNIT ED 5 ORD _________I__S_S_____________________ TI O ERED RT U O RT H

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