Opinion
32212-15 21530-16 2241-18
10-02-2023
DENNIS M. CURTIN, ET AL., Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
RONALD L. BUCH JUDGE
On September 29, 2023, the parties filed a Joint Status Report in which they included a proposed pretrial schedule. We will make significant changes to the parties' proposed schedule.
We make these modifications partially because of how long these cases have been pending. The newest of these cases has been pending for more than five years and the oldest for nearly eight. We presume the parties have not allowed these cases to lay dormant in the years they have been pending; if they have lain dormant, it was at the parties' peril.
We also make these modifications because the parties schedule is impracticable, in that it allows insufficient time between scheduled events either for a party to respond or for the Court to address an issue. For example, the parties would allow 17 days between the service of informal discovery and the deadline for formal discovery, which is likely inadequate. They would then allow 30 days for the filing of a motion to compel. This 30-day period presumably includes the time to respond to formal discovery, for that response to be reviewed by the requesting party, and for the requesting party to prepare a motion to compel. The parties would then allow 32 days between the filing of a motion to compel and the final submission of proposed exhibits for trial. That 32 days, however, necessarily include time for the Court to order a response to the motion to compel, for the Court to potentially allow for a reply, for the Court to decide the motion and potentially order a response, for the responding party to provide that response, for the requesting party to review that response, and for the requesting party to include any of those responsive documents in its proposed trial exhibits. (We also note that, in the parties' proposed schedule, the parties reserved for themselves the right to agree to extend the deadlines. The deadlines set forth below may only be extended by leave of the Court.)
We also make these modifications because the Court has been called upon to address issues that have no obvious bearing to the resolution of the merits of these cases. As a result, we will strike from the parties' proposed schedule the deadline for filing any motions challenging the following items:
1. All motions challenging the validity, whether under the Constitution, the Administrative Procedures Act, or otherwise, of this Court, any provision of the Internal Revenue Code or the Treasury Regulations promulgated thereunder, or any division or section of the Treasury Department, shall be filed by June 17, 2024.
6. All dispositive motions shall be filed by August 16, 2024.
Both of these categories of motions are properly characterized as motions for full or partial summary judgment, and we will order that any such motions only be filed with leave of the Court. If a party files a motion that should properly have been characterized as a motion for partial or full summary judgment as some other kind of motion, the Court anticipates that it will recharacterize and deem the motion to be stricken unless prior leave was sought. In so ordering, we are also influenced by these cases having been pending for an exceedingly long time. We anticipate that any motion for leave will be accompanied by an explanation of why any such motion could not have been filed in the preceding years between the filing of these cases and the filing of the motion for leave.
In accordance with the foregoing, it is
ORDERED that the parties shall adhere to the following deadlines:
1. By March 29, 2024,
1. The parties shall serve any informal requests for discovery.
2. The parties shall identify expert witnesses by exchanging:
1. The expert's name and business address,
2. The expert's curriculum vitae,
3. A list of all publications authored by the expert within the preceding ten years,
4. A list of any other cases in which the witness has testified as an expert at trial or by deposition within the preceding four years; and
5. A summary of anticipated topics of the expert's testimony. 3.By May 10, 2024,
1. The parties shall serve any requests for formal discovery on the opposing party, including requests for production of documents and interrogatories.
2. The parties shall file any requests for admission. 4.By June 28, 2024,
1. The parties shall exchange any expert reports and lodge any such reports with the Court.
2. The parties shall file any motions to determine the sufficiency of answers or objections to requests for admissions.
3. The parties shall file any motions to compel stipulations.
4. The parties shall file any motions to compel discovery.
5. By July 12, 2024,
1. The parties shall complete any discovery depositions.
2. The parties shall make any applications for depositions to perpetuate testimony or to preserve any document or other thing.
6. By September 13, 2024
1. The parties shall file any stipulations of facts.
2. The parties shall file any proposed trial exhibits.
3. The parties shall file pretrial memoranda.
7. By September 20, 2024, the parties shall file any motions in limine with respect to any documents or testimony a party seeks to exclude.
8. By September 27, 2024, the parties shall submit to the Court any proposed trial exhibits (i.e., documents that may be offered into evidence to which the parties did not stipulate).
9. October 15, 2024, trial commences.
Any deadlines not contained herein are controlled by the Tax Court Rules.
It is further
ORDERED that no party may file a motion for full or partial summary judgment without first seeking leave of the Court to file such a motion.