UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

 OFFICE OF HEARINGS

IN THE MATTER OF:

RENAISSANCE JET, INC. DOCKET NO. FAA-2013-1078

RESPONDENT

_____________________________________________________

 TELECONFERENCE HEARING BEFORE

 THE HONORABLE J. E. SULLIVAN

 TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015

 1:34 P.M.

 HISTORIC JORDAN SPRINGS

 1160 JORDAN SPRINGS ROAD

 STEPHENSON, VIRGINIA 22656
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 2

1 APPEARANCES

2 ON BEHALF OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION:

3 ZACHARY M. BERMAN, ESQUIRE

4 OFFICE OF THE REGIONAL COUNSEL, EASTERN REGION

5 1 AVIATION PLAZA

6 JAMAICA, NEW YORK 14434

7 TELEPHONE: 718.553.3258

8 FACSIMILE: 718.995.5699

9 EMAIL: ZACHARY.BERMAN@FAA.GOV

10

11

12 ON BEHALF OF THE RESPONDENT,

13 RENAISSANCE JET, INC.:

14 JOHN ADAMS HODGE, ESQUIRE

15 JOHN ADAMS HODGE AND ASSOCIATES, LLC

16 136 STONEMARK LANE, SUITE 110

17 COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA 29210

18 TELEPHONE: 803.783.9001

19 FACSIMILE: 803.783.9210

20

21

22 ALSO PRESENT:

23 CODY L. SMITH

24 SHARON HODGE

25
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 3

1 INDEX

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4 (NO EXAMINATION)

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7 EXHIBITS

8 Exhibit Page

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FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 4

1 TELECONFERENCE HEARING

2 TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015

3 1:34 P.M.

4 THE COURT: We're on the record in the

5 matter of Renaissance Jet, Inc., docket number FAA6 2013-1078. Today is Tuesday, January 13th, 2015, and

7 the parties have convened by telephone for another

8 pre-hearing status conference. The Federal Aviation

9 Administration, which I'll herein after refer to as

10 the FAA, is represented by its attorney of record, Mr.

11 Zachary M. Berman. The Respondent, Renaissance Jet,

12 Inc., is represented by its attorney, Mr. John Adams

13 Hodge. Also present sitting in as an observer on

14 behalf of the Respondent is Ms. Sharon Hodge. And,

15 Mr. Hodge, is Ms. Hodge an attorney as well?

16 MR. HODGE: Yes, she is.

17 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. In addition,

18 sitting in at the Office of Hearings Courtroom is Mr.

19 Cody L. Smith, an attorney advisor with this office.

20 Good afternoon to you all. Mr. Berman, why don't we

21 start with you and could you tell us what the status

22 update is for this case.

23 MR. BERMAN: Okay. First of all, I'd just

24 like to comment that I hear you as you're talking. I

25 hear some feedback as well in that.
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 5

1 THE COURT: I do too and I'm wondering if

2 somehow this conference line has been compromised. Is

3 there someone, Mr. Hodge, on your end that's talking

4 or do you have a radio on?

5 MR. HODGE: No, I do not. I did have it on

6 speaker but I took it off speaker. Is that better?

7 THE COURT: That's much better. I don't

8 hear any feedback. Mr. Berman, how about you?

9 MR. BERMAN: That's better.

10 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. Then, Mr.

11 Berman, let's get back to the status report. What's

12 the status of this case?

13 MR. BERMAN: Well, we are negotiating.

14 We're in the process. I don't know if we're going to

15 settle, but we're having some settlement negotiations

16 now and we've made some offers and counteroffers and

17 at this point I'm waiting to hear back from

18 Renaissance Jet, the Respondent, in response to our

19 latest counteroffer.

20 THE COURT: Okay. So what are you

21 suggesting to the Court in terms of scheduling hotels

22 and airline tickets? Tell me what the status is in

23 terms of the Court's travel plans.

24 MR. BERMAN: Well, these settlement, these

25 settlement negotiations, they started about a week ago
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 6

1 and they've kind of, and so it's kind of picked up

2 over the last week. So there's a good chance that, I

3 get the sense that there's a good chance that we'll

4 know by the end of this week as to whether or not

5 we're going to settle.

6 THE COURT: Okay.

7 MR. BERMAN: So that, I would suggest that

8 holding off on travel plans until after this week,

9 that's my sense.

10 THE COURT: Mr. Hodge, what is your response

11 to the Court's inquiry? Do you agree with Mr. Berman

12 or do you have any, any other answer to offer to the

13 Court?

14 MR. HODGE: Yes, Your Honor. I do think

15 that we're, I do agree with Mr. Berman. I think that

16 we're getting relatively close to an agreeable figure

17 and terms. And the current posture, Mr. Berman made a

18 counteroffer late yesterday. I have forwarded that to

19 my client and I've asked them to respond before I

20 called today but I have not heard from them yet. But I

21 would expect in the next several days if it's going to

22 settle we should know. And I will also say that I

23 think that the parties are close enough that it would

24 be more probable than not that it would settle, but I

25 would agree with Mr. Berman that I would give it to
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 7

1 the end of the week before making travel plans and

2 expending resources, that sort of thing ...

3 THE COURT: Okay.

4 MR. HODGE: ... for travel and ...

5 THE COURT: Let's talk about something else

6 then. Because essentially, as I hear the parties, you

7 have some, some confidences right now but nothing that

8 is a guarantee. And if that's true and the trial is

9 two weeks away, well, three weeks away, excuse me,

10 then the Court's going to err on the side of caution

11 and make some travel plans so that I don't run into

12 the problem I've had in other cases where I've made

13 travel plans so late I can't stay in the city because

14 of a loss of government rate rooms. So, so I will go

15 ahead and make travel plans to go to Charlotte, North

16 Carolina. If I end up canceling those plans that's

17 better than not having them in place in the event

18 settlement does not work out for the parties in this

19 case.

20 That leads me to the January 9th, 2015, due

21 date for the filing of witness lists and exhibits. I

22 did receive a witness list and exhibit from Mr.

23 Berman. I did not receive that from the Respondent.

24 So, Mr. Hodge, what's your position on that? Is there

25 some material ...
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 8

1 MR. HODGE: Your Honor, we could, we had

2 served that last Friday and I would imagine it's

3 probably in the postal service's system. And my

4 experience with sending matters to Washington is

5 because of the scanning, the Anthrax scanning and that

6 sort of thing, it does take a little bit longer. I

7 can certainly send you an electronic copy immediately

8 if you would like.

9 THE COURT: We don't have email service

10 here, but I would highly recommend that you fax a copy

11 to us.

12 MR. HODGE: Okay.

13 THE COURT: Yes. So that, just so that you

14 know, if you have other cases before the Court, the

15 filing date is the due date that I should have it in

16 my hand ...

17 MR. HODGE: Okay.

18 THE COURT: ... for the Court. So we

19 typically fax as a way to insure that occurring. If

20 we do not get ...

21 MR. HODGE: All right. I'll make sure

22 that's ...

23 THE COURT: Yeah.

24 MR. HODGE: Go ahead. I'm sorry.

25 THE COURT: That would be, that would be
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 9

1 great.

2 MR. HODGE: Okay.

3 THE COURT: And then in terms of the

4 settlement negotiations, I'm going to turn back to

5 you, Mr. Berman. You were saying that you thought you

6 might know something by the end of this week. What

7 I'll do is I'll ask you to be sure to let my office

8 know as soon as you know so that if travel plans need

9 to be canceled we can cancel them. Would that be

10 acceptable?

11 MR. BERMAN: Yes.

12 THE COURT: Okay. And then I will ask the

13 parties, do you want me to setup one last conference

14 time? Do you need that or are you feeling fairly

15 confident that you'll be able to resolve the rest of

16 these matters without Court, the Court's attention?

17 Mr. Berman, starting with you.

18 MR. BERMAN: Well, I'm not totally sure

19 we're going to settle. Now, the, I'm fine with not

20 having a conference. I'm just not, well, before I

21 answer the question, what would be in your view,

22 Judge, the purpose of a conference if we don't settle?

23 THE COURT: Well, one of the advantages to

24 the Court is knowing what's going on so that I don't

25 travel somewhere and then end up having people come to
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 10

1 the courthouse and saying that they've settled.

2 MR. BERMAN: I don't think there's any need

3 for any further conferences.

4 THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Hodge, what's your

5 position on that?

6 MR. HODGE: I would tend to agree that there

7 probably is not a need for another conference. And I

8 do think if we can resolve this we could certainly let

9 your office know as soon as possible.

10 THE COURT: Okay. That sounds great. Mr.

11 Berman, going back to you, is there anything else that

12 we need to address for your client today before we

13 close?

14 MR. BERMAN: Yes. I'd just appreciate it if

15 Mr. Hodge could fax me what he's faxing to you.

16 THE COURT: Of course. Mr. Hodge ...

17 MR. HODGE: Okay.

18 THE COURT: ... I'll ask you to do that.

19 That should be contemporaneous obviously. Mr. Hodge,

20 anything that you would like to address on behalf of

21 your client before we close?

22 MR. HODGE: Nothing particular, although I

23 would like to also state that I did send Mr. Berman

24 via the mail as well the package. So it was, they

25 were both served last Friday but I'll go ahead and
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 11

1 make sure that gets faxed at the same time.

2 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you very much. In

3 the event that there is no settlement and I, then I

4 will look forward to meeting you both at the

5 courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February

6 3rd, 2015, at 9:00 A.M.

7 I'll just remind you, and I'm sure you both

8 know this, that nowadays it takes a little while to

9 get through the courthouse, so please make sure you

10 allow for time for getting through security. We do

11 not have any particular instructions from the

12 courthouse personnel about not allowing telephones or

13 equipment in, so in fact laptop computers and phones

14 should be permitted. If you have any trouble with

15 that, please ask the security guards to give me a call

16 and I'd be happy to come back down from the courtroom

17 and assist to make sure that you get through with all

18 the material and tools that you need.

19 With that, it appears our business is

20 complete. I wish you good luck in your settlement

21 negotiations. We can go off the record and I wish you

22 all a good day and a Happy New Year.

23 MR. BERMAN: Thank you.

24 THE COURT: Thank you.

25 MR. HODGE: Thank you, Your Honor.
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 12

1 THE COURT: All right. Bye-bye.

2 (WHEREUPON, the Teleconference was concluded at 1:44

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VETERAN 

REPORTERS 

855.667.0077 

VETERANREPORTERS.COM 
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 13

1 STIPULATION

2

3 The foregoing matter was taken on the date, and at

4 the time and place set out on the title page hereof.

5

6 It was requested that the matter be taken by the

7 reporter and that the same be reduced to typewritten

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CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER AND SECURE ENCRYPTED

I, Sara E. Duncan, do hereby certify that

 the foregoing matter was reported by stenographic and/or 

 mechanical means, that same was reduced to written form,

 that the transcript prepared by me or under my direction, 

 is a true and accurate record of same to the best of my 

This transcript and certificate have been digitally

 the action filed or its outcome.

 knowledge and ability; that there is no relation nor 

 parties hereto, nor financial or otherwise interest in

 employment by any attorney or counsel employed by the

Court Reporter

SIGNATURE AND DELIVERY OF CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT

 signed and securely delivered through our encryption

 server.

IN WITNESS HEREOF, I have here unto set my hand 

 this day of , .

Sara E. Duncan

19th January 2015
FAA vs Renaissance Jet, Inc. January 13, 2015 VR # 1064-3 Page 15

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1:34 4:3

1:44 12:2

13 4:2

13th 4:6

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2013-1078 4:6

2015 4:2

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acceptable

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address 10:12

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advantages

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advisor 4:19

afternoon

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agreeable

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ahead 7:15

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airline 5:22

allow 11:10

allowing

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answer 6:12

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anything

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appreciate

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attention

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behalf 4:14

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counteroffer

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exhibits 7:21

expect 6:21

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fact 11:13

fairly 9:14

fax 8:10 8:19

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security

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whether 6:4

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wondering 5:1

work 7:18

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yesterday

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