Opinion
3325-15 8365-15
12-29-2021
DAVID ROMO, et al Petitioners, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
Mark V. Holmes, Judge
The lower-numbered case was originally on the February 22, 2016 San Francisco, California trial calendar, but we stayed most work on it while Mr. Romo was in federal custody. Docket number 8365-15, filed by Thomas Clark Dashiell, was first on the Court's March 7, 2016 trial calendar. The Dashiell case was then continued 6 times, ultimately coming to rest on this division's San Francisco trial calendar for October 25, 2021. In a call with the parties on June 25, 2021 about the Dashiell case, the Court became aware of the close connection between the two cases and we consolidated them.
Despite their age, they are both still only at the very early stages of pretrial preparation. We spoke to the parties on October 20, 2021 and discussed with them how to get these cases moving to a conclusion. There has already been some pretrial discovery in the Romo case, but all agreed that a reasonable first step is to get the nonprivileged parts of respondent's bulging administrative files in these cases to petitioners. Respondent recently reported that the process is underway but that the resurgent pandemic has again slowed progress. The parties reasonably suggest reporting again in February, and it is
ORDERED that the parties file a status report on or before February 22, 2022 describing their progress in informal discovery and their expected needs for formal discovery.