Opinion
6983-19W
05-07-2024
ARTHUR M. BIALER, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
David Gustafson, Judge
Petitioner has filed two motions (Docs. 162, 164) to supplement the administrative record in this case and "Petitioner's Motion to Request Extension of Time" (Doc. 163). We will deny the motion for extension and will require additional filings as to the motions to supplement.
Motion for extension
The motion for an extension is 12 pages long but, as far as we can tell, does not specify the deadline that is requested to be extended nor the duration of that extension. The motion cites and quotes our order (Doc. 159) adopting a schedule (Doc. 154) for various actions as to possible de-redaction of the administrative record; and this may mean that the motion seeks an extension of that schedule. That schedule, however, allows petitioner to "file a motion with respect to requested de-redaction" and to do so "by May 24, 2024"--a date still more than two weeks away. The motion includes substantial discussion about petitioner's motions to supplement the record (see paras. 2-5, 10-22), but those motions are not a subject of the cited scheduling order. The schedule also reflects the Commissioner's "inten[tion] to file a motion for summary judgment ... [b]y June 7, 2024", but no filing by that date has actually been ordered; and in any event, it is not a filing to be made by Petitioner. We will therefore deny the motion for extension. If there is some other deadline or schedule as to which Petitioner seeks relief, he should request it with particularity. The best practice for any motion is for the relief sought to be set forth with particularity in a preamble or in the conclusion (or "Wherefore" paragraph) or both. See Rule 50(a) ("shall set forth the relief or order sought").
Motions to supplement
On April 26, 2024, Petitioner filed a motion (Doc. 162) to supplement the record with two emails. His motion for extension (Doc. 163) filed three days later on April 29, 2024, states (emphasis added):
3. Petitioner will in the next few days complete his motions [plural] to supplement the current record ....
20. Petitioner will file tomorrow [April 30, 2024] another motion to supplement the record with a one-page document ....
21. Within the next few days, petitioner will complete his motions to supplement the current record with documents produced under the two Court orders. Some proposed supplemental documents will prove that the IRS sought and obtained documents from petitioner ....
22. Petitioner will also file a motion to supplement the current record with the portions of the administrative record based upon which the IRS paid a section 7623(b)(1) award for CCSB at Target and/or Target Entity 1 to so-called "Whistleblower 1" ....On Wednesday, May 1, 2024 (not April 30), Petitioner filed a motion to supplement--his "second motion", he says (Doc. 164 at 1)--"[p]er paragraph 20 of the motion for more time". That second motion foretells that "[p]er paragraph 21..., petitioner will file by the end of this week a third and last motion to supplement the current record with certain other IRS documents ...." The end of that week was Saturday, May 4, 2024, but no third motion was filed. It is not helpful when Petitioner foretells his future action but then does not meet the dates he set for himself. We assume that Petitioner's counsel had a reason for filing these as three separate seriatim motions, but that reason is not obvious to us, and we think that the multiple filings make the situation confusing and unnecessarily complicated. It is
ORDERED that the motion for extension (Doc. 163) is denied.
ORDERED that, if Petitioner intends to file any additional motion to supplement the record (which, as we read Doc. 164, he undertook to do by May 4, 2024), he shall file no more than one such motion and shall do so no later than May 13, 2024. We do not expect to entertain any motion to supplement filed after that date. It is further
ORDERED that, no later than May 28, 2024, the Commissioner shall file a single response to Petitioner's several motions to supplement (i.e., Docs. 162 and 164, and any third motion filed by May 13, 2024); and that, no later than June 14, 2024, Petitioner shall file a single reply to the Commissioner's response.