UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICE OF HEARINGS

IN THE MATTER OF: AIRBORNE MAINTENANCE AND ENGINEERING SERVICES, FDMS No. FAA-2013-0291 Respondent

Monday, June 23, 2014

The teleconference pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m. BEFORE: THE HONORABLE J.E. Sullivan, Administrative Law Judge convened,



# \V D

HEARING DOCKET

NEALR. GROSS 1

(202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433APPEARANCES:

On Behalf of the Complainant: CHRISTOPHER R. STEVENSON, ESQ. of: Office of the Regional Counsel, Southern Region Federal Aviation Administration P.O. Box 20636 Atlanta, GA 30320

(404) 305-5200
On Behalf of the Respondent: ROBERT P. SILVERBERG, ESQ. of: Silverberg, Goldman & Bikoff, LLP Georgetown Place, Suite 120 1101 30'h Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007

(202) 944-3300 Also Present: CODY L. SMITH

NEAL R. GROSS 2

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1 

### P-R-0-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 10:00 

### a.m. 3 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: We're on the 4 record in the matter of Airborne Maintenance 5 

### and Engineering Services. It's Docket No. 6 FAA-2013-0291. 

### 7 Today is Monday, July 23, 2014 

### 8 and the parties have convened for a telephone 9 conference. 10 

### The FAA 

### is represented by its 11 

### attorney of record Mr. Christopher R. 12 

### Stevenson. The respondent is represented by 13 

### its attorney of record Mr. Robert P. 14 

### Silverberg. 15 Also appearing as an observer 16 at the Office of Hearings is Mr. Cody L. 17 Smith, an attorney advisor with this office. 18 

### Good morning to you all. 19 

### MR. SILVERBERG: Good morning. 20 

### MR. STEVENSON: Good morning. 21 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Good morning. 22 

### I'll note that on June 18, 2014 

### an order

NEAL R. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44334 

### 1 setting telephone conference was filed. This 2 was subsequent to a June 17, 2014 revised Rule 3 

### 26 (f) schedule/discoveryplan that the parties 4 

### jointly filed. 5 

### And I will start with you, Mr. 6 

### Stevenson, and then turn next to you, Mr. 7 

### Silverberg. It's my understanding that the 8 

### parties are seeking essentially to continue 9 

### the hearing that's currently set in this case 10 in October 2014 to approximatelyApril or May 11 2015. Is that right, Mr. Stevenson? 12 MR. STEVENSON: Yes, Your 13 Honor. 14 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. And, 15 Mr. Silverberg, that's your understanding as 16 well? 17 MR. SILVERBERG: Yes, Your 18 Honor, that's the schedule that we worked out 19 with Mr. Stevenson prior to filing. 20 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Then 21 let's talk a little bit about that. 22 I need to talk to you about the

NEALR. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE.• N.W WASHINGTON. D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44335 

### 1 January 13, 2015 proposed oral argument date 2 that you have on page 2 of the June 17, 2014 3 revised Rule 26(f) plan. 4 And then also on that same page 5 the April 2015 hearing dates. 6 

### And based on what we come up 7 with we may tinker a little bit with some of 8 the other dates as well. 9 Let's start then with the time 10 frame of April 21 through the 24th, 2015. 11 

### Amazingly enough, I actually 12 already have something scheduled that week. 13 So we need to talk a little bit about moving 14 that just a pinch. 15 MR. SILVERBERG: Of course, 16 Your Honor. We obviously were not aware of 17 your schedule at the time when we came up with 18 this. 19 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: No, and I 20 appreciate that. Actually it's much easier 21 for me if you give me a date certain like 22 this. And then if I have it available I can

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### 1 reserve it immediately upon getting your 2 material. 3 

### If I already have something 4 scheduled then, like we've done in this case, 5 we get it on the calendar as fast as possible 6 to talk about an alternate date. So what you 7 did here was just perfect. 8 

### MR. SILVERBERG: That's good to 9 hear on a Monday morning. 10 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Yes, that's 11 right. 12 So, I'm going to suggest some 13 alternates and then we can look at our 14 calendars and see what we think. 15 I have the week prior to that 16 which is the week of April 13, 2015. I also 17 have the week of May 4, 2015 and anything 18 

### beyond that. I have nothing scheduled after 19 April 21 through the 24. 20 So, starting with you, Mr. 21 Stevenson, do you want to go a little earlier 22 or a little later in the week that you had

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1 

### originally proposed? 2 MR. STEVENSON: The FAA is 3 

### indifferent on that point. I am available 4 

### both a little earlier and a little later than 5 

### that. 6 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Mr. 7 

### Silverberg, turning next to you. Same 8 

### question. 9 

### MR. SILVERBERG: Yes, Your 10 

### Honor. And I just want to refer to a holiday 11 

### calendar here to make sure that I'm not 12 

### putting myself in jeopardy with my family on 13 

### those other dates. And it looks like there's 14 

### no problem. 15 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Do you have a 16 

### preference? 17 

### MR. SILVERBERG: Well, 18 

### actually, I see there is a yes. The 19 preference would probably be

-- I guess I'm 20 indifferent. 21 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Can you 22 tell me based on your calendar when the

NEAL R. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44338 

### 1 holiday of Easter comes in April? 2 

### MR. SILVERBERG: Regrettably I 3 

### looked up the Jewish holiday calendar and 4 Passover is on April 23-24 as I see it now, 5 

### something I should have been observant to at 6 

### the time. 7 

### But I'd be happy to look that 8 

### up for you. Hold on just one minute. 9 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Oh no, that's 10 

### okay. They're close enough in time. 11 

### So let's do this. Let's avoid 12 

### Passover and Easter issues and just set this 13 

### for the week of May 4, 2015. 14 

### MR. SILVERBERG: Very well. 15 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: And my 16 recollectionof this, and I'm going to take a 17 look at my calendar really quickly, is that 18 this is one of those cases that was going to 19 involve several days of testimony. 20 Right, there was four days that 21 

### we had reserved with a hearing date starting 22 on Tuesday ending at 5 p.m. on Friday. Do you

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1 folks want to do the same kind of schedule for 2 the May 2015 trial? Mr. Stevenson? 3 MR. STEVENSON: I believe that 4 would be a good idea, Your Honor. 5 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. And Mr. 6 Silverberg? 7 MR. SILVERBERG: Yes. I don't 8 see any reason to change that at this point. 9 Hopefully discovery and motions might limit 10 the need for all four days. But that's 11 something that's yet to be determined. 12 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. So 13 we'll set this for May 5, 2015, May 6, 2015, 14 May 7, 2015 and May 8, 2015 with travel dates 15 on May 4, 2015 and Saturday, May 9, 2015. 16 With that do you want to tweak 17 a little bit the February and March 2015 dates 18 that are on your proposedRule 26 (f) plan? Or 19 are those still acceptable to you? Mr. 20 Stevenson. 21 MR. STEVENSON: Generally 22 they're still acceptable so I don't think it's

NEALR. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE

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### 1 necessary to tweak them. But I think it would 2 be I 

### guess easier and more in the normal flow 3 

### of litigation if those were a little closer to 4 

### the hearing dates we've decided on. 5 JUDGE SULLIVAN: 

### Do you have 6 

### any proposal or do you want to keep them as is 7 

### for now? 8 MR. STEVENSON: 

### Well, if I 9 

### could hear whether or not Mr. Silverberg has 10 any opinion on the matter. 11 JUDGE SULLIVAN: 

### Sure. Mr. 12 Silverberg? 13 MR. SILVERBERG: 

### I suppose we 14 could 1 ive with them the way they are now, or 15 having pushed everything by, what, 20

-- a 16 week. Well, it's a little more than a week, 17 

### isn't it? I mean, they could be moved 18 slightly. I don't have a 2015 calendar in 19 front of me. They could be moved, but if they 20 remained the same we can live with that. 21 JUDGE SULLIVAN: 

### Okay. Why 22 don't I do this? Why don't I change the

NEAL R. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-443311 1 February 19 date and push it out to March 5, 2 2015. And then the March 12, 2015 date we'll 3 move to March 26, 2015. And then we can keep 4 everything else about the same. 5 With the January 2015 oral 6 argument we just need to talk about a time. 7 MR. SILVERBERG: I'm sorry, did 8 you say 15, Your Honor? Or 13? 9 JUDGE SULLIVAN: I said January 10 13, 2015. I'm sorry, my voice is a little 11 scratchy because I have a cold. 12 On the January oral argument 13 date that you have proposed for January 13, 14 2015, Mr. Stevenson, startingwith you, do you 15 have any particular time during that day that 16 you would prefer? 17 MR. STEVENSON: Yes, Your 18 Honor. I prefer that it be in the afternoon. 19 I usually have a weekly meeting at 10 in the 20 morning on Tuesday. If I could all other 21 things being equal I'd prefer to avoid a 22 conflict.

NEAL R. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE, N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-443312

1 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Mr. 2 Silverberg, any problem with that? 3 MR. SILVERBERG: Well, I'mhere 4 in Washington. I' 11 be available at any time 5 on January 15. The 13th or the 15th? I'm 6 sorry. 7 JUDGE SULLIVAN: It's the year 8 2015 and

-- 9 MR. SILVERBERG: And it's 10 Tuesday the 13th. 11 JUDGE SULLIVAN: That's 12 correct. 13 MR. SILVERBERG: Okay. 14 JUDGE SULLIVAN: So it's 15 January 13, 2015. 16 MR. SILVERBERG: I'm at your 17 disposal, Your Honor. 18 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Let's 19 plan on 1:30 p.m. on January 13, 2015. And if 20 you would be so kind, please schedule 90 21 minutes. So that would be from 1:30 to 3 p.m. 22 Typically these last no more

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1 than one hour but on occasion the Court has 2 many questions. And if that happens I want to 3 make sure that the parties have the time 4 scheduled. 5 And then with the rest of the 6 proposed schedule I'm happy to adopt it as is. 7 And I recognize that I still 8 need to issue the ruling on the in camera 9 request that's on my desk. And I just have 10 been trying to get to that and about 12 other 11 cases simultaneously. 12 So, I'm well aware that that 13 needs to be addressed. And I'm trying to get 14 it out as soon as I can. 15 Mr. Stevenson, starting with 16 you, is there anything else that we need to 17 address for you and your client today? 18 MR. STEVENSON: No, Your Honor. 19 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. And Mr. 20 Silverberg, anything we need to address for 21 you and your client? 22 MR. SILVERBERG: No, Your

NEAL R. GROSS (202) 234-4433 COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., NW. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-443314 

### 1 Honor. 2 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Then I'll 3 thank you both very much for your presence 4 today and for your work in putting this 5 

### together. It makes the Court's job so much 6 easier and I appreciate it. 7 

### With that we can I wish you 8 

### both a good day. I'll issue an order 9 codifying all of these dates in a new revised 10 schedule so that you have it. And that should 11 get out to you no later than tomorrow. 12 

### With that I thank you very 13 much. We can go off the record and I wish you 14 all a good day. Thank you. 15 (Whereupon, the above-entitled 16 matter went off the record at 10:13 a.m.) 17 18 19 20 21 22

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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com18 C E R T I F I C A T E

This is to certify that the foregoing transcript

In the matter of: Airborne Maintenance

Before: US DOT

Date: 06-23-14

Place: teleconference

was duly recorded and accurately transcribed under my direction; further, that said transcript is a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

Court Reporter

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERSANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., NW WASHINGTON. D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com