Case No. BKY 05-30073.United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota.
January 26, 2005
ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF ALLOWED INTERROGATORIES AND DEPOSITIONS, SET EXPEDITED DISCOVERY DATES, AND SET CASE MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES
GREGORY KISHEL, Bankruptcy Judge
The motion of Great American Insurance Company for an order setting expedited discovery dates and procedures establishing case management deadlines is GRANTED. The following schedule shall govern (i) the conduct of all discovery; (ii) the filing of papers before the Court, and (iii) deadlines with respect to the matters contained herein.
I. FACT DISCOVERY
All parties shall work together to expeditiously complete the production of documents and other materials and shall use their best efforts to coordinate their discovery and pre-trial efforts to the extent possible.
A. Deadlines Applicable To Debtor And Plan Proponents
The following deadlines shall apply to A.P.I., Inc. (“Debtor”) and the Official Committee of Current Asbestos Claimants (“ACC”) (collectively, “Plan Proponents”). In addition, all third-parties from whom discovery is sought or who will submit issues for determination at the Legal Issues Hearing (as defined below) shall cooperate in scheduling and conducting discovery and
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submitting briefs at the Legal Issues Hearing so as to comply with the applicable provisions of this Order:
1. The Plan Proponents and Objecting Parties (collectively, “Parties”) are permitted to serve more than twenty-five (25) interrogatories under Rule 7033.
2. The Plan Proponents shall serve written responses to written fact discovery and objections to all forms of discovery within seven (7) calendar days of service of same.
3. The Plan Proponents shall complete their initial production of documents within ten (10) calendar days of service of requests for production of documents, subject to supplementation.
4. Each Plan Proponent that intends to call any fact witness at the confirmation hearing for the Plan of Reorganization (“Plan”) to be scheduled by subsequent Order of the Court (“Confirmation Hearing”) shall provide a list of such witnesses and a general description of the area(s) in which such witness is expected to testify to all parties set forth on Exhibit “A” appended hereto by no later than January 31, 2005.
5. Depositions of fact witnesses designated by a Plan Proponent may commence immediately. The parties are permitted to take more than ten (10) depositions under Rule 7030(a)(2).
B. Deadlines Applicable To Insurers And Others Objecting To The Plan
The following deadlines shall apply to any insurers and others objecting to the Plan (collectively, the “Objecting Parties”):
6. The Objecting Parties shall serve written responses to written fact discovery and objections to all forms of discovery within seven (7) calendar days of service of same .
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7. The Objecting Parties shall complete their initial production of documents within ten (10) calendar days of service of requests for production of documents, subject to supplementation.
8. Any Objecting Party that intends to call any fact witness at the Confirmation Hearing shall provide a list of such witnesses and a general description of the area(s) in which such witness is expected to testify to all parties set forth on Exhibit “A” appended he reto by no later than February 7, 2005 with a right to supplement through February 14, 2005.
II. EXPERT DISCOVERY
9. All expert discovery, except for rebuttal expert discovery as described in the below, shall be completed on or before February 28, 2005.
A. Deadlines Applicable To Plan Proponents
10. Each Plan Proponent that intends to call an expert at the Confirmation Hearing shall produce a report for each expert that complies with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2). The Plan Proponents shall serve expert reports on or before February 4, 2005. Except for rebuttal expert witnesses, the Plan Proponents may not call any expert to testify at the Confirmation Hearing whose expert report is not served on or before February 4, 2005.
11. Depositions of experts designated by the Plan Proponents may commence on February 7, 2005.
B. Deadlines Applicable To Insurers And Others Objecting
12. The Objecting Parties shall serve their expert reports on or before February 22, 2005. Except for rebuttal expert witnesses, the Objecting Parties may not call any expert to
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testify at the Confirmation Hearing whose expert report is not served on or before February 22, 2005.
13. Depositions of experts designated by Objecting Parties may commence on February 23, 2005.
C. Rebuttal Experts
14. A Plan Proponent or Objecting Party may designate a rebuttal expert(s), who may (but need not) be the same as a previously designated expert, to opine on a subject matter(s) first raised in the opposing party’s expert report(s). All rebuttal expert reports shall be served on or before February 28, 2005. Depositions of all rebuttal experts shall commence thereafter and conclude by March 4, 2005.
III. PRE-TRIAL MOTION PRACTICE.
15. For all hearings other than emergency hearings requiring a hearing in less than seven (7) days, the requirements of Local Rule 9006-1(d) are waived. No expedited requests for hearing need be filed with this Court. All law and motion matters shall be heard on an expedited basis.
16. All hearings shall be set by this Court, upon telephonic request of the moving party to the Court’s calendaring clerk. A party requesting a hearing shall propose a hearing date that is at least seven (7) days from the date on which notice will be served, with opposing briefs to be filed at least 48 hours prior to the hearing time. Upon receipt from this Court of a hearing date, hearing time and an appropriate response deadline, the moving party shall take all reasonable steps to provide all affected parties with the most expeditious service and notice possible, and shall file an affidavit specifying the efforts made, but in no event shall notice be less than seven (7) days.
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17. Service by e-mail and/or facsimile of papers filed with this Court is hereby authorized with respect to the parties whose facsimile numbers and e-mails are set forth on Exhibit “A” appended hereto. In the event that any party’s facsimile number or e-mail address changes, such party shall be responsible for filing a notice of the same with this Court.
IV. OTHER DEADLINES.
18. Initial objections to the Plan shall be filed by January 27, 2005. The initial objections shall consist of a brief numbered listing of each current objection to the Plan, not including the detailed legal or factual support therefor. The initial objections may be supplemented and amended up to three days prior to the Confirmation Hearing.
19. The Court has scheduled a hearing on February 28, 2005 (“Legal Issues Hearing”), at which the Court will determine legal issues raised by the Parties and the issue of the standing of the insurers to participate in this case. The Court shall not rule at that time on any issue requiring the Court to make a finding of fact, unless the Parties stipulate to the existence or non-existence of all facts necessary for such determination. The following briefing schedule shall be followed with respect to the Legal Issues Hearing:
(A) the Plan Proponents shall file and serve a statement of all legal issues upon which they will seek a determination by the Court by January 31, 2005;
(B) all Parties shall file and serve their opening briefs with respect to the legal issues upon which they will seek a determination by the Court by February 7, 2005;
(C) all Parties shall file and serve their opposition briefs by February 17, 2005;
(D) all Parties shall file and serve their reply briefs by February 22, 2005.
20. Each Party shall file and serve its Confirmation Hearing witness list twelve (12) days before the Confirmation Hearing. Rebuttal fact witnesses, if any, must be designated seven (7) days before the Confirmation Hearing and depositions of such witnesses shall be completed one (1) day before the Confirmation Hearing.
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21. Exhibit binders shall be delivered to the Court three (3) days before the Confirmation Hearing.
Counsel for the Debtor shall immediately serve a copy of this Order on all parties listed on the current service list and any other parties in interest and file a certification of service with the Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court within ten (10) days hereof.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
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