Free Motion for Leave to File - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:08-cv-00262-JPW

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Filed 06/02/2008

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS BEN POURBABAI, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 08-262C (Judge Wiese)

DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO SUBMIT STATUS REPORT Defendant, the United States, respectfully requests leave to submit the following status report concerning the status of the representation of plaintiff, Ben Pourbabai, by his current counsel of record and the attempts of Government counsel to schedule a preliminary status conference in accordance with the Court's May 21, 2008 order. STATUS REPORT On May 27, 2008, pursuant to the Court's May 21, 2008 order, the undersigned attempted to contact Mr. Pourbabai's counsel of record, Frederick A. Douglas, by telephone. Because Mr. Douglas did not respond by telephone, on May 28, 2008, Government counsel sent Mr. Douglas an electronic message seeking to agree upon dates to propose to the Court for a preliminary status conference. Mr. Douglas responded that he would check with his client for agreeable dates that fell within the time frame ordered by the Court and get back to the undersigned, but that Mr. Pourbabai would be out of town for most of June and July and, thus, late July would be preferable. To date, Mr. Douglas has not provided proposed dates or responded to the dates proposed by the undersigned for a preliminary status conference. On May 29, 2008, Government counsel received an electronic message from Mr. Pourbabai stating: "Mr. Douglas seems to have withdrawn from representing me. Would you

Case 1:08-cv-00262-JPW

Document 8

Filed 06/02/2008

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please either contact me at 703-759-1981 or let me know when can I call you." Attach. A. Mr. Pourbabai also left a voice mail message on May 29, stating Mr. Douglas no longer represented him. Upon receiving these messages, the undersigned immediately called Mr. Douglas and left a message with his assistant and forwarded Mr. Pourbabai's electronic message inquiring into the status of Mr. Douglas's continuing representation of plaintiff. On May 30, 2008, the undersigned received another message from Mr. Pourbabai stating: My lawyer, Mr. Douglas has indicated that he is not representing me in US Court of Federal Claims. Today I called that court, and I was told that Mr. Douglass' motion to withdraw representing me has not arrived there. As you know I do not have a financial claim against the US Government as it pertains to the settlement agreement. That is, I have repeatedly called the agreement violated across the board and void, and since 2001, I have requested all my EEO complaints to be reinstated. That is, US Court of Federal Claims might not have even jurisdiction over my pending EEO complaints, and at the end, the case might be sent to a relevant court, accordingly. Furthermore, Mr. Douglas might have informed you, I am unavailable from June 5 to July 25, 2008. Therefore, I would like to ask you, (if you are allowed to communicate with me), whether you would be willing to delay a conference call with me until the US District Court for DC has concluded its position regarding me pending complaint? Looking forward to hearing from you. Attach. B. Mr. Douglas has, to date, not responded to repeated electronic or phone calls inquiring into the current status of his representation of Mr. Pourbabai. Pursuant to Rule 83.1(c)(6) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims, "[n]o attorney of record for a plaintiff or a third party may withdraw such attorney's appearance except by leave of the court on motion and after notice is served on such attorney's client." Therefore, the undersigned has not contacted and will not, unless directed by the Court, contact Mr. Pourbabai

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Case 1:08-cv-00262-JPW

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Filed 06/02/2008

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directly. For these reasons, we respectfully submit this status report. Respectfully submitted, GREGORY G. KATSAS Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director /s/ Todd M. Hughes TODD M. HUGHES Deputy Director /s/ David S. Silverbrand DAVID S. SILVERBRAND Trial Attorney U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Commercial Litigation Branch 1100 L Street, N.W. ATTN: Classification Unit, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20530 Tel: (202) 305-3278 June 2, 2008 Attorneys for Defendant

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify under penalty of perjury that on this 2nd day of June, 2008, a copy of the foregoing "DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO SUBMIT STATUS REPORT" 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/ David S. Silverbrand