Opinion
753-21
06-01-2023
ROARING CREEK PLANTATION, LLC, ROARING FLORIDA ACQUISITIONS, LLC, TAX MATTERS PARTNER, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
L. Paige Marvel, Judge.
On May 26, 2023, the parties filed a joint Status Report. In the report, the parties informed the Court that this case is ready to be scheduled for trial, and they proposed several dates for a special trial session. The Court will schedule this case for a special trial session for 1-week beginning April 29, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that this case is calendared for trial at a special session of the Court, for 1-week, beginning at 10:00 a.m. (ET), on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Courtroom 1136, 11th Floor, Russell Federal Building & Courthouse, 75 Spring Street, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia, 30303. It is further
ORDERED that the following procedures and schedule, which incorporates some of the parties' proposed pretrial schedule, shall govern the pretrial preparation of this case:
1. Pleadings.
All motions with respect to the pleadings, including motions for leave to amend the pleadings, shall be filed on or before August 28, 2023.
2. Discovery.
(a) The parties shall attempt to attain the objectives of discovery through informal consultation or communication before utilizing the discovery procedures (formal discovery) provided in this Court's Rules of Practice and Procedure. This Court expects the parties to minimize discovery disputes whenever possible. No motion to compel discovery pursuant to Tax Court Rule 104 shall be filed unless and until the parties have met in an effort to resolve the dispute and, if the dispute remains unresolved following such meeting, have had a conference call with the Court to discuss the dispute.
(b) All interrogatories (Rule 71), requests for production of documents (Rule 72), and requests for admissions (Rule 90) shall be served on or before a date that will enable any required responses to be due on or before October 23, 2023.
(c) All motions to compel written discovery under Rule 104 and to review the sufficiency of responses to requests for admissions under Rule 90(e) shall be filed on or before December 21, 2023.
(d) All notices of fact witness depositions and any motions to take non-consensual party depositions shall be served no later than December 21, 2023.
(e) All motions to compel the deposition of a non-party fact witness and motions to preserve testimony shall be filed on or before January 25, 2024. Any joint stipulation to take the consensual deposition of a party shall be filed on or before January 25, 2024.
3. Summary Judgment.
All motions for full or partial summary judgment pursuant to Rule 121 shall be filed on or before February 20, 2024.
4. Stipulations.
The parties shall comply with Rule 91 except as modified by the Court and shall stipulate, to the fullest extent to which complete or qualified agreement can or fairly should be reached, all matters not privileged which are relevant to the pending case, regardless of whether such matters involve fact or opinion or the application of law to fact. Although the Court expects the stipulations to be comprehensive, the parties may conduct the stipulation process in a manner reasonably calculated to result in one or more stipulation of facts that together shall constitute a comprehensive stipulation of facts for purposes of this case. One or more executed stipulations of facts, together with exhibits, shall be submitted directly to the Court on or before October 2, 2023. This paragraph does not preclude the subsequent filing of supplemental stipulations of facts. Any motion to compel stipulations pursuant to Rule 91(f) shall be filed on or before February 20, 2024.
5. Expert Witnesses.
The parties shall abide by the procedures and deadlines regarding expert witnesses set forth herein. The parties are reminded that any expert witness testimony is admissible only to the extent that it assists the Court in resolving one or more matters at issue in this case. The Court will consider excluding an expert witness's testimony, including but not limited to the expert's report, if the testimony is not helpful, or is so argumentative and adversarial that the expert witness appears to be an advocate for the party offering the witness. An expert witness's testimony may be excluded for failure to comply with the provisions of Rule 143(g) (as modified by this Order) and for failure to comply with this Order.
The following procedures and deadlines apply to expert witnesses:
(a) On or before March 1, 2024, each party shall exchange with the other party a written statement that identifies by name any potential expert witness to be called as part of the party's case-in-chief and sets forth the expert witness' qualifications and a brief summary of the expected testimony.
(b) On or before March 11, 2024, the parties shall exchange and submit directly to the Court all expert witness reports, prepared in accordance with Rule 143(g), which the parties intend to introduce as part of their cases-in-chief. A party is prohibited from calling any expert witness as part of its case-in-chief if that party has not exchanged and submitted an expert witness report in accordance with this subparagraph.
(c) On or before March 20, 2024, the parties shall provide a written statement that identifies by name any potential expert witness to be called as a rebuttal expert witness and sets forth the rebuttal expert witness' qualifications and a brief summary of the expected testimony. A party's rebuttal expert witness need not be the same expert witness called to testify in that party's case-in-chief.
(d) On or before March 20, 2024, the parties shall serve notices of deposition of expert witnesses, if any, to be taken under Rules 74 or 81 and shall file any motions to take non-consensual expert witness depositions. Any expert witness deposition shall be completed by March 29, 2024.
(e) On or before April 5, 2024, the parties shall exchange and submit directly to the Court all rebuttal expert witness reports. No party shall submit or exchange a rebuttal expert witness report for presentation at trial, unless that party previously exchanged an initial expert report in accordance with subparagraph (b) above. The parties shall also (1) exchange all documents and materials (other than marked up drafts of expert reports, comments on such drafts or other matters or communications protected from discovery by Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)) relied on by each expert to prepare his/her rebuttal report that have not already been exchanged, or that are not otherwise available commercially to the other party or are in the public domain, and (2) identify in writing and exchange all documents provided by a party or counsel to each rebuttal expert witness (other than marked up drafts of expert reports, comments on such drafts or other matters or communications protected from discovery by Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)) that have not previously been exchanged.
(f) On or before April 15, 2024, the parties shall exchange expert witness workpapers, including excel spreadsheets.
6. Pretrial Memoranda.
On or before April 15, 2024, each party shall submit to the Court and serve on the other party a pretrial memorandum setting forth the issues to be tried, a summary of the pertinent facts and the applicable law, and the evidentiary issues, if any, expected to arise at trial, as well as any other significant problem on which a ruling may be required. The pretrial memoranda shall also identify all witnesses expected to testify at trial, including expert witnesses, and shall set forth a summary of each witness's anticipated testimony. Witnesses who are not identified will not be permitted to testify at the trial without leave of Court for good cause shown.
7. Document Identification and Exchange.
On or before April 15, 2024, all documents and materials to be offered as evidence at trial (except written materials to be used solely for impeachment) that are not stipulated shall be identified in writing and exchanged by the parties. Any written materials not so identified and exchanged will not be admitted into evidence unless otherwise agreed to by the parties or allowed by the Court for good cause shown.
8. Motions in Limine.
On or before April 15, 2024, the parties shall file any pretrial motions regarding evidentiary issues or witness issues, including motions in limine. Any responses to motion in limine shall be filed on or before April 22, 2024.
9. Exchange of Demonstrative Materials.
On or before April 15, 2024, the parties shall exchange with each other and shall provide to the Court any charts, diagrams or other demonstrative materials prepared for purposes of the trial that they intend to use in connection with their respective cases-in-chief. Nothing in this paragraph, however, shall preclude either party from presenting such additional or revised charts, diagrams, or other demonstrative material as the circumstances at trial may warrant as long as the party offering the material has provided a copy of the material to the other party and to the Court at least 24 hours before the use of such material at trial.
10. Service of Document.
Whenever, by the terms of this Order, the parties are required to serve, file, exchange or submit a document on a particular day, the parties shall do so either electronically or by delivering the document on that day by an overnight delivery service so that it is received by the opposing party and/or the Court on the next business day.