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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

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In re:

THE FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND

MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO,

as representative of

THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO et al.,

Debtors.1

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PROMESA

TITLE III

Case No. 17-BK-3283-LTS

Re: D.E. No. 20937

(Jointly Administered)

URGENT UNCONTESTED OMNIBUS MOTION FOR

EXTENSION OF DEADLINES CONCERNING SCHEDULING OF MEDIATIONS

To the Honorable United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain and the Honorable United

States Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein:

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Drivetrain, LLC (“Trustee”), in its capacity as the trustee of the Commonwealth Avoidance 

Actions Trust (“Trust”), respectfully submits this urgent uncontested omnibus motion (the “Urgent

Motion”) for entry of an order, substantially in the form attached as Exhibit A (the “Proposed

Order”), extending the deadline set forth in the Court’s Avoidance Action Procedures [DE No. 

1 The Debtors in these Title III Cases, along with each Debtor’s respective Title III case number and the last four (4) 

digits of each Debtor’s federal tax identification number, as applicable, are the (i) Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 

(Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK-3283-LTS) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3481); (ii) Puerto Rico Sales Tax 

Financing Corporation (“COFINA”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK-3284-LTS) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 

8474); (iii) Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (“HTA”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK- 3567-LTS) 

(Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3808); (iv) Employees Retirement System of the Government of the 

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (“ERS”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK- 3566-LTS) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax 

ID: 9686); (v) Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (“PREPA”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 17- BK-4780-LTS) (Last Four 

Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3747); and (vi) Puerto Rico Public Buildings Authority (“PBA”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 19-

BK-5523-LTS) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3801) (Title III case numbers are listed as Bankruptcy Case 

numbers due to software limitations).

2 The Trustee addresses this Urgent Motion to both Judge Swain and Judge Dein because although sections I.H and 

I.I of the Sixteenth Amended Order on Case Management Procedures [DE. No. 20190] requires all urgent filings be 

directed to Judge Swain, each of the avoidance actions subject of this motion were referred to Magistrate Judge Dein 

for general pretrial management. 

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20937, Appendix 2] (“Procedures”) to set mediation dates for certain, remaining avoidance action 

defendants with whom mediation has not been finally scheduled. The Trustee has filed this motion 

in an omnibus fashion to avoid the burden and redundancy associated with preparing and filing 

nearly identical motions in the certain avoidance involving the Remaining Defendants (defined 

below). In support, the Trustee respectfully states as follows: 

BACKGROUND

1. On April 14, 2022, the Trustee filed the Omnibus Motion by the Avoidance Actions

Trustee to Establish Litigation Case Management Procedures (D.E. 20560 in Case No. 17-BK3283) (“Procedures Motion”).

2. Through the Procedures Motion, the Trustee requested that the Court enter an 

order approving litigation case management procedures (i.e., the “Procedures”) for dozens of

avoidance actions that were transferred to the Avoidance Actions Trust pursuant to the Modified 

Eighth Amended Title III Joint Plan of Adjustment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, et al. (the 

“Avoidance Actions”).3

3. On May 23, 2022, the Court established the Procedures upon entering the Order 

Allowing Omnibus Motion by the Avoidance Actions Trustee to Establish Litigation Case 

Management Procedures (D.E. 20937).

4. Article V(i) of the Procedures provides as follows:

During the Stay Period, the Trustee shall communicate with each defendant for the 

purpose of establishing dates for a pre-trial mediation session with each defendant, 

which shall be scheduled on a mutually convenient date among counsel and the 

parties. Unless otherwise allowed by the Court, by no later than sixty (60) days 

from the conclusion of the first one hundred and twenty (120) days of the Stay 

Period, a date for the mediation session shall be set for each Avoidance Action.

(Procedures, D.E. 20937, Appendix 2, Art. V(I) (emphasis added)). 

3 The Avoidance Actions subject of the Procedures are identified in Appendix I of the Court’s Procedures Order. 

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5. Accordingly, the deadline for the Trustee and defendants in the Avoidance 

Actions to set a date for mediation is November 21, 2022 (the “Mediation Scheduling Deadline”).

6. As the Trustee reported in its First [D.E. 22331] and Second [D.E. 22649] status 

reports to the Court, the Trustee and its professionals have expended substantial time and effort to 

schedule mediations in each Avoidance Action by the Mediation Scheduling Deadline.

7. The Trustee’s efforts have included the following:

a. The Trustee has communicated with each of the fifty-one (51) Avoidance 

Action defendants to schedule mediation and, in almost every instance, has 

done so numerous times. 

b. If a defendant or its counsel failed to respond to the Trustee’s counsel, then it 

was, and continues to be, the practice of Trustee’s counsel to follow-up with 

such defendant or counsel until a mediation is ultimately set.

c. The Trustee has already completed mediation with twenty (20) defendants

(the “Completed Mediations”). 

d. The Trustee has scheduled and finally set an additional sixteen (16) 

mediations to occur (“Scheduled Mediations”).

8. Beyond the Completed Mediations and Scheduled Mediations, there remain 

thirteen (13) defendants for which “a date for the mediation session” has not been “set” pursuant 

to the Procedures (the “Remaining Defendants”).

9. The Remaining Defendants can be categorized in three sub-tranches. 

10. The first tranche includes defendants with whom the Trustee has already

tentatively scheduled mediation or is in the process of re-scheduling previously-scheduled 

mediations (the “Tentatively-Scheduled Defendants). As of the filing of this motion, there are five

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(5) Tentatively-Scheduled Defendants, as follows: 

GM Security Technologies, Inc. 19-00273

St. James Security Services, LLC 19-00145

Ambassador Veterans Services of Puerto Rico L.L.C. 19-00048

Community Cornerstones, Inc. 19-00043

E. Cardona & Asociados, Inc. 19-00056

11. The second tranche includes defendants with whom the Trustee is currently 

engaged in ongoing communications with the aim of scheduling mediation, but for whom a 

specific date and/or mediation has not been finalized (the “In-Process Defendants”). As of the 

filing of this motion, there are seven (7) In-Process Defendants, as follows:

Centro de Desarrollo Académico, Inc. 19-00053

Jose Santiago, Inc. 19-00075

Junior Bus Line, Inc. 19-00229

Rodriguez-Parissi & Co., C.S.P. 19-00155

Seguros Colon Colon, Inc. 19-00130

Sesco Technology Solutions, LLC 19-00162

Xerox Corporation 19-00218

12. The third tranche includes one (1) defendant who has completely failed to respond 

to the Trustee’s repeated efforts to schedule mediation (the “Unresponsive Defendant”). For the 

Court’s reference, the Trustee is also including in the table below as to each Unresponsive 

Defendant the number of e-mail communications that the Trustee has sent to each Unresponsive 

Defendant to which a meaningful response by a defendant has not been furnished. 

Didacticos, Inc. 19-00161 Ten (10) email communications to vendor.

13. The Trustee believes that mediations with many of the Tentatively-Scheduled 

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Defendants and the In-Process Defendants should be set on or before the Mediation Scheduling 

Deadline in light of the advanced status of mediation-related communications with such 

defendants.

14. However, unlike the Tentatively-Scheduled Defendants and the In-Process 

Defendants, the Trustee cannot assess whether the Unresponsive Defendant will respond or set a 

mediation date before the Mediation Scheduling Deadline. 

15. Although not contemplated by the Procedures Motion, but in an effort to advance 

the process and conserve judicial resources, the Trustee has also engaged in this same process with 

numerous tolled parties in an effort to resolve or narrow claims before litigation. 

RELIEF REQUESTED

16. The Trustee respectfully submits that Rule 9006(b) of the Federal Rules of 

Bankruptcy Procedure authorizes the Court to grant an extension of the Mediation Scheduling 

Deadline. 

17. Rule 9006(b) provides in relevant part: 

[W]hen an act is required or allowed to be done at or within a specified . . . by order

of court, the court for cause shown may at any time in its discretion . . . with or 

without motion or notice order the period enlarged if the request therefor is made 

before the expiration of the period originally prescribed or as extended by a 

previous order. 

Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9006(b)(1).

18. Good cause exists to grant the requested extension of the Mediation Scheduling 

Deadline. 

19. Specifically, in light of the volume of Avoidance Actions, the numerous 

defendants and their counsel, and the need for input from several mediators, the process to schedule 

mediations in each Avoidance Action has been a multifaceted process that involves input from 

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various parties. As set described above, in accordance with spirit and purpose of the mediation 

provisions of the Procedures, the Trustee has, since entry of the Procedures, worked diligently to 

schedule mediation in each of the Avoidance Actions to work through this multifaceted process in 

an efficient and streamlined way. As a testament to these efforts, all but one of the Remaining 

Defendants have engaged in fruitful, mediation-specific communications and are on the cusp of 

setting a date for mediation in their respective Avoidance Actions (i.e., the Tentatively-Scheduled 

Defendants and the In-Process Defendants). These responsive Remaining Defendants have 

discussed scheduling mediation within a certain timeframe, or have even, along with the Trustee, 

submitted dates to a preferred mediator and are simply waiting for confirmation. 

20. Thus, although the Trustee’s efforts to set a firm mediation date in each of the 

Avoidance Actions remains ongoing despite the best efforts of its professionals (and those 

responsive Remaining Defendants), the Trustee is uncertain whether mediation will be set for all 

of the Remaining Defendants by the Mediation Scheduling Deadline.

21. To continue this process, the Trustee has communicated to counsel for the 

Remaining Defendants for their consent to extend the Mediation Scheduling Deadline for a period 

of 60 days, through and including January 20, 2023. As of the date of this motion, two (2) of the 

Remaining Defendants have consented to the relief requested, six (6) of the Remaining Defendants

do not object to the filing of this Extension Motion, and five (5) of the Remaining Defendants have 

not responded or otherwise indicated any opposition despite multiple requests.

22. Accordingly, in light of these foregoing circumstances and good cause, the Trustee

proposes and requests an extension of the Mediation Scheduling Deadline through and including 

January 20, 2023.

23. Pursuant to Paragraph I.H of the Sixteenth Amended Notice,Case Management and

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Administrative Procedures [ECF No. 20190-1] (the “Case Management Procedures”), the

Trustee certifies that it has carefully examined the matter and concluded that there is a true need

for an urgent motion; it has not created the urgency through any lack of due diligence; has made a

bona fide effort to resolve the matter without a hearing; has made reasonable, good-faith

communications in an effort to resolve or narrow the issues that are being brought to the Court,

and no party opposes the relief requested in this Urgent Motion.

NOTICE

24. The Trustee has provided notice of this Urgent Motion in accordance with the

Case Management Procedures to the following parties: (a) the Office of the United States

Trustee for the District of Puerto Rico; (b) the indenture trustees and/or agents, as applicable, for

the Debtors’ bonds; (c) the entities on the list of creditors holding the 20 largest unsecured claims

against COFINA; (d) counsel to the statutory committees appointed in these Title III cases; (e) the

Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico; (f) counsel to the Oversight

Board; (g) the Puerto Rico Department of Justice; (h) all parties filing a notice of appearance in

these Title III cases; and (i) Movants. A copy of the Urgent Motion is also available on the

Commonwealth’s case website at https://cases.primeclerk.com/puertorico/.

WHEREFORE, the Trustee requests the Court enter the Proposed Order, extend the 

Mediation Scheduling Deadline, and grant such other relief as is just and proper.

Dated: November 14, 2022

Respectfully submitted by: 

/s/ John Arrastia

John Arrastia, Esq. (Pro Hac Vice)

Jesus M. Suarez, Esq. (Pro Hac Vice)

Angelo M. Castaldi, Esq. (Pro Hac Vice)

CONTINENTAL PLLC

255 Alhambra Cir. Suite 640 

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Coral Gables, FL 33134

Tel: 305-677-2707

JArrastia@continentalpllc.com

JSuarez@continentalpllc.com

ACastaldi@continentalpllc.com

And

/s/ Juan J. Casillas Ayala

Juan J. Casillas Ayala, Esq. (USDC-PR 218312)

Luis F. Llach Zúñiga, Esq. (USDC-PR 223112)

Juan C. Nieves González, Esq. (USDC-PR 231707)

Edna Tejeda Oyola (USDC-PR 219803)

CASILLAS, SANTIAGO & TORRES LLC 

El Caribe Office Building 

53 Palmeras Street, Ste. 1601 

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901-2419 

Telephone: (787) 523-3434 

jcasillas@cstlawpr.com

lllach@cstlawpr.com

jnieves@cstlawpr.com

etejeda@cstlawpr.com

Counsel to the Trustee

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that on November 14, 2022, I electronically filed the foregoing 

motion with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF system, which will send notification of such 

filing to all appearing parties in the captioned proceeding. 

/s/ John Arrastia

John Arrastia, Esq.

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Exhibit A

Proposed Order

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