Free Motion for Extension of Time - District Court of Connecticut - Connecticut

Case 3:03-cv-00599-CFD

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT

BRIDGEPORT AND PORT JEFFERSON STEAMBOAT COMPANY, et al., CASE NO. 3:03 CV 599 (CFD) Plaintiffs, - against BRIDGEPORT PORT AUTHORITY, Defendant. _____________________________________/ February 26, 2004

JOINT MOTION TO EXTEND DISCOVERY DEADLINES Pursuant to Local Rule 7(b), plaintiffs and defendant jointly move for an extension of the current discovery deadlines, and in support thereof state as follows: 1. Counsel for defendant Bridgeport Port Authority (the "Port Authority"), Edward

J. Sheppard, confirmed, in a telephone conversation with plaintiffs' counsel, Martin Domb, on February 25, 2004, that the Port Authority joins in this motion. 2. The parties twice before have moved, on consent, to extend the discovery

deadlines. On December 3, 2003, the Court so-ordered the parties' second request to extend the discovery deadlines. That motion set forth the procedural history of this case through November 20, 2003, the date of the motion. To avoid repetition, we attach hereto a copy of that prior, soordered, motion. 3. By this motion, the parties seek a two-month further extension of the current

deadlines. The reason for this request is that the parties were unable to schedule all of the necessary fact depositions for completion prior the end of February (the current deadline for fact

ORAL ARGUMENT NOT REQUESTED
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discovery), due to scheduling conflicts by counsel and/or the witnesses, and they need the additional time in order to complete fact depositions as described below. 4. Since the date of the prior motion (November 20, 2003), the parties have engaged

in the following additional discovery and pretrial proceedings: (a) December 4, 2003 ­ oral argument on the Port Authority's motions to

dismiss (which motions are sub judice). (b) December 12, 2003 ­ mediation before Magistrate Judge Garfinkel (which

has not resulted in settlement as of today). (c) February 9, 2004 ­ deposition of Brian A. McAllister, President of the

Ferry Company. (d) February 10, 2004 ­ deposition of William Merritt, chief financial officer

and consultant to the Ferry Company. (e) February 10, 2004 ­ deposition of Brian Buckley McAllister, Vice

President and General Counsel of the Ferry Company. (f) February 24, 2004 ­ deposition of Martha Klimas, Development Associate

for the Port Authority. (g) The deposition of Joseph Savino, Chairman of the Board of

Commissioners of the Port Authority, was scheduled to be held on February 25, 2004, but had to be postponed due to Mr. Savino's illness.. 5. Counsel for the parties have scheduled the following additional fact depositions to

be held on the dates indicated: (a) March 4, 2004 ­ deposition of Frederick Hall, Vice President and General

Manager of the Ferry Company.

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(b)

March 5, 2004 ­ deposition of Louis Rinaldo, General Manager,

Bridgeport, of the Ferry Company. (c) Company. (d) March 8, 2004 ­ deposition of Joseph Riccio, Executive Director of the March 5, 2004 ­ deposition of Sharon St. Louis, Chief Purser of the Ferry

Port Authority. (e) March 9, 2004 ­ deposition of Michael Freimuth, former Commissioner of

the Port Authority. 6. In addition, the following depositions have yet to be scheduled (or re-scheduled): (a) (b) bookkeeping. 7. follows: (a) March 15, 2004 ­ Edward Oppel, former Executive Director of the Port In addition, plaintiffs recently served and noticed deposition subpoenas as Joseph Savino (see ¶ 4(g) above). Charmaine Johnson, Port Authority employee responsible for

Authority. Mr. Oppel has informed the parties that the date is inconvenient for him and has asked that it be rescheduled. (b) Bridgeport. 8. In addition, on February 6, 2004, the Port Authority filed a motion to compel March 19, 2004 ­ Jerome Baron, former Director of Finance, City of

documentary or written discovery by the Ferry Company as to certain matters. The Ferry Company intends to file its opposition on February 27, 2004.

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9.

We respectfully submit that, as the foregoing shows, the parties have conducted

and pursued discovery diligently but have been unable to complete such discovery within the current deadline of February 29, 2004. The parties accordingly agreed to request a further twomonth extension of the discovery deadlines as follows: Event All fact discovery to be completed Plaintiffs to designate trial experts and serve experts' reports and damages analysis Depositions of plaintiffs' experts to be completed Defendant to designate trial experts Depositions of defendant's experts and all other discovery to be completed Dispositive motions to be filed Joint trial memorandum to be filed and case to be ready for trial Current Deadlines February 29, 2004 March 31, 2004 April 30, 2004 May 31, 2004 June 30, 2004 July 31, 2004 August 30, 2004 Proposed New Deadlines April 30, 2004 May 31, 2004 June 30, 2004 July 31, 2004 August 31, 2004 September 30, 2004 October 31, 2004

(Signature on following page.)

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WHEREFORE, the parties jointly and respectfully request that the Court grant this motion. BRIDGEPORT AND PORT JEFFERSON STEAMBOAT COMPANY, GREG ROSE, and FRANK C. ZAHRADKA Plaintiffs

By:

_______________________________________ Martin Domb Federal Bar No. ct 09544 E-mail: [email protected] HILL, BETTS & NASH LLP One World Financial Center 200 Liberty Street, 26th Floor New York, New York 10281-1003 Tel. (212) 589-7577 Fax (212) 466-0514 Jonathan S. Bowman Federal Bar No. ct 08526 E-mail: [email protected] Stewart I. Edelstein Federal Bar No. ct 06021 E-mail: [email protected] COHEN AND WOLF, P.C. 1115 Broad Street P.O. Box 1821 Bridgeport, Connecticut 06601-1821 Tel. (203) 368-0211 Fax (203) 576-8504

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on this 26th day of February, 2004, a copy of the foregoing was served via e-mail and first class mail upon the following: John W. Roberts. Esq. Roberts, Rose & Bates, P.C. 17 Hoyt Street Stamford, CT 06905 Suzanne L. Montgomery, Esq. Thompson Coburn One US Bank Plaza St. Louis, MO 63101 Edward J. Sheppard, IV, Esq. Thompson Coburn 1909 K Street, N.W., Suite 600 Washington, D.C. 20005-2010 Jonathan S. Bowman Stewart I. Edelstein COHEN AND WOLF, P.C. 1115 Broad Street P.O. Box 1821 Bridgeport, Connecticut 06601-1821

By:

________________________________ Martin Domb Federal Bar No. ct 09544 E-mail: [email protected] HILL, BETTS & NASH LLP One World Financial Center 200 Liberty Street, 26th Floor New York, New York 10281-1003 Tel. (212) 589-7577 Fax (212) 466-0514

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4.

By the present motion, the parties seek (a) a further three-month extension with as to the seguence of discovery, to

respect to the overall pretrial schedule, and (b ) a clarification

provide that all fact discovery is to be completed first, and all expert discovery is to follow
promptly thereafter . The proposed new schedule is set forth in paragraph 10 (on page 5) below.
5.

The reason for this motion is that, while the parties have taken significant fact

discovery to date (as summarized in paragraph 6 below), there is additional and important fact discovery yet to be completed (see paragraph 7 below). The parties agree that they must
complete the ongoing fu£! discovery, upon which the experts need to rely, before the experts can

complete their reports or be deposed. The current schedule would require the parties to exchange expert reports and to take expert witness depositions even though fact discovery is still ongoing. 6. To date, the following discovery has taken place:

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(a) (b)
(c)

The Port Authority served its initial disclosures on June 9,2003 Plaintiffs served their initial disclosures on July 24,2003 The Port Authority served first sets of interrogatories and document

requests directed to the individual plaintiffs on June 9,2003. Plaintiffs served written
responses to these requests on July 7, 2003 (by Frank Zahradka) and July 24,2003 (by

Greg Rose). (The third individual plaintiff, Robert Heller, filed a voluntary dismissal on
July 30, 2003

(d)

Plaintiffs served first sets of interrogatories and document requestson the

Port Authority on July 8,2003. The Port Authority served its written responsesto these requests, along with some responsive documents, on September 4,2003,
(e)

The Port Authority served first sets of interrogatories and document

requests directed to the corporate plaintiff, Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamboat Company (the "Ferry Company"), on August 5,2003. The Ferry Company served its written responsesto these requests, along with responsive documents, on September 19,
2003, (1)

On August 25,2003, the Port Authority took depositions of individual

plaintiffs Frank Zahradka and Greg Rose, and of Robert Heller, a fonner individual
plaintiff who had filed a voluntary dismissal several weeks earlier.

(g)

On September4, 2003, the Port Authority served a document subpoenaon

Steamboat Concessions,Inc. ("Concessions"), an affiliate of the Ferry Company, which
operates the food concession at the Bridgeport ferry tenninal. Concessions served a

written responseto the subpoenaon September23, 2003, and produced the responsive
documents on October 3,2003,

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(h)
documentation,

On September 29,2003, plaintiffs' representatives reviewed extensive
at the Port Authority, regarding government grants to the Port Authority,

and requested copies of many of those documents. Between October 27 and October 30,
2003, the Port AJ.lthority prodJ.lced the requested copies, totaling over 10,000 pages.
(i)

On September 26, 2003, plaintiffs served a deposition and document
auditors, Dworken, Hillman, LaMorte & Sterczala, p .C.

subpoena on the Port Authority's ("Dworken").

Plaintiffs reviewed an initial set of responsive documents produced by

Dworken on October 20, 2003. Dworken produced copies of such documents, and of a second set of responsive documents, between October 30 and November 3,2003. The
Dworken documents total approximately 4,500 pages,

7.

The additional discovery that remains to be taken includes:
(a) Some further documentary discovery from the Port Authority ( consisting

principally of selected accounting records).
(b)

Depositions of representativesthe Ferry Company and of the Port

Authority (which counsel agreed will be held promptly following the completion of documentary discovery), and of Dworken.
(c)

Reports and depositions of experts.

8.

Thus, documentary discovery is almost complete, and the remaining depositions

will follow shortly thereafter (the individual plaintiffs having already been deposed). 9. As noted above, the parties need to complete the factual discovery, upon which

their respective experts will need to rely, before the experts can complete their reports or be
deposed. Thus, the current schedule cannot reasonably be met despite the parties' diligence to
date.

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10.

Counsel for plaintiffs and the Port Authority believe that the overall three-month

extension of the current scheduled is the minimum extension reasonably necessaryunder the circumstances described above, and that the slight change of sequence--with fact discovery to be completed first and to be promptly followed by expert witness discovery --will make the schedule more rational, fair and efficient for both plaintiffs and the Port Authority. The new deadlines would be as follows: February 29,2004 March 31,2004
All fact discovery to be completed. Plaintiffs to designate trial experts and serve experts , reports and damages analysis
April 30, 2004

Depositions ofplaintiffs'

experts to be completed

May 31,2004

Defendant to designate trial experts and serve experts , reports

June 30, 2004 July 31,2004 August 30, 2004

Depositions of defendant's experts to be completed

Dispositive motions to be filed Joint trial memorandum to be filed and caseto be ready for trial

(Signature

on following

page. )

(NYOI8367.1}

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WHEREFORE, plaintiffs (with defendant's consent) respectfully request that the Court
grant this motion. BRIDGEPORT AND PORT JEFFERSON STEAMBOA T COMP ANY , GREG ROSE, and FRANK C. ZAHRAD KA Plaintiffs .-,..

By:

~~

Martin Domb Federal Bar No. ct 09544 E-mail: [email protected] HILL, BETTS & NASH LLP One World Financial Center 200 Liberty Street, 26th Floor New York, New York 10281-1003 Tel. (212) 589-7577 Fax (212) 466-0514 Jonathan S. Bowman Federal Bar No. ct 08526 E-mail: [email protected] Stewart I. Edelstein Federal Bar No. ct 06021 E-mail: [email protected] COHEN AND WOLF, p .C. 1115 Broad Street P.O. Box 1821 Bridgeport, Connecticut 06601-1821 Tel. (203) 368-0211 Fax (203) 576-8504

(NYOI8367.1}

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CERTIFICATE

OF

SERVICE

I hereby certify

that on this 20th day of November,

2003, a copy of the foregoing

was

served via e-mail and first class mail upon the following:
John w. Roberts. Esq. Roberts, Rose & Bates, p .C 17 Hoyt Street Stamford, CT 06905 Edward J. Sheppard, IV , Esq . Thompson Coburn 1909 K Street, N.W., Suite 600 Washington, D.C. 20005-2010

SuzanneL. Montgomery, Esq Thompson Cobum One US Bank Plaza St. Louis, MO 63101

Jonathan S. Bowman Stewart I. Ede1stein COHEN AND WOLF, p .C. 1115 Broad Street P.O. Box 1821 Bridgeport, Connecticut 06601-1821

1

By

~~

Martin Domb Federal Bar No. ct 09544 E-mail: [email protected] HILL, BETTS & NASH LLP One World Financial Center 200 Liberty Street, 26th Floor New York, New York 10281-1003 Tel. (212) 589-7577 Fax (212) 466-0514

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
hereby certify that on this 26th day of February, 2004, a copy of the foregoing was served via e-mail and first class mail upon the following:
J ohn w. Roberts. Esq .

Roberts, Rose & Bates, p .C. 17 Hoyt Street Stamford, CT 06905

Edward J. Sheppard, IV, Esq. Thompson Cobum 1909 K Street, N .W ., Suite 600 Washington, D.C. 20005-2010

SuzanneL. Montgomery, Esq. Thompson Cobum One US Bank Plaza St. Louis, MO 63101

Jonathan S. Bowman Stewart I. Edelstein COHEN AND WOLF, P.C. 1115 Broad Street P.O. Box 1821 Bridgeport, Connecticut 06601-1821

By

Martin Domb Federal Bar No. ct 09544 E-mail: [email protected] HILL, BETTS & NASH LLP One World Financial Center 200 Liberty Street, 26th Floor New York, New York 10281-1003 Tel. (212) 589-7577 Fax (212) 466-0514

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