Ps Investments, L.P., F/K/A Paradigm Services, L.P. v. Southern Instrument and Valve Company, Inc.

FILED 14-0820 4/24/2015 11:37:41 AM tex-5021699 SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS BLAKE A. HAWTHORNE, CLERK NO. 14-0820 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF TEXAS _____________________ PS INVESTMENTS, L.P. f/k/a PARADIGM SERVICES, L.P. Petitioner vs. SOUTHERN INSTRUMENT & VALVE COMPANY, INC. Respondent __________________________________________________________________ UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE RESPONDENT’S BRIEF ON THE MERITS __________________________________________________________________ TO THE HONORABLE TEXAS SUPREME COURT: Respondent, Southern Instrument & Valve Company, Inc., file this Unopposed Motion for Extension of Time to File Respondent’s Brief on the Merits. In support of this motion, Respondent show the following: INTRODUCTION 1. Petitioner is PS Investments, L.P., f/k/a Paradigm Services, L.P.; Respondent is Southern Instrument & Valve Company, Inc. 2. Counsel for appellant is unopposed to this motion. ARGUMENT & AUTHORITIES 3. The Court has the authority under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 55.7 to extend the time to file a brief. 4. Respondent’s Brief on the Merits was due March 30, 2015 and filed April 6, 2015 after the court granted an unopposed extension . Respondent’s Brief on the Merits is now due on April 27, 2015 per the court’s March 30, 2015 letter to counsel. 5. Respondent, Southern Instrument & Valve Company, Inc. requests an additional 14 days to file its response brief, extending the deadline to May 11, 2015, because its counsel has been so burdened by preparation of another extensive document and preparation for two trials that he has been unable to start the brief. 6. Respondent’s counsel needs the additional time to file the brief because of an unusual confluence of litigation demands, requiring extensive preparation time over the past two weeks: (a) trial set for the two-week period beginning April 27, 2015 in New Deliverance Fellowship Ministries v. Acceptance Indemnity Insurance Company, Brezina Claim Associates, Inc., and Jay Rayburn; Cause No. 2014-02315; In the 234th District Court of Harris County, Texas; (b) trial set for the two-week period beginning May 4, 2015 in Beth Bryant vs. Utica Lloyds of Texas; In the 125th Judicial District of Harris County, Texas; No. 2012-23447 with pre-trial documents due on April 27, 2015; 2 (c) the primary conflict: a lengthy, complex, document- and research- intensive Response to a Motion for Summary Judgment due April 28, 2015 in Southwest Risk, L.P., Clearview Risk Holdings, LLC v. Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company; C.A. No. 4:14-CV-01745; In the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, on which the undersigned has been working for more than the last week; and (d) scheduled events and deadlines in the ordinary course of other litigation. 7. The undersigned is his firm’s primary appellate attorney, also maintains his own coverage litigation docket, and does not use an associate, so he is solely responsible for the above deadlines. Respondent, Southern Instrument & Valve Company, Inc. therefore requests this additional time so that its counsel will be able to expand research and analysis as needed for a merits brief, and properly prepare it. 8. There is also a deadline crunch with briefs for which the undersigned’s legal assistant provides all technical preparation for filing. Although the first two briefs below are being drafted by other counsel and the last is ready but for record citations, the following briefs are due during the week of May 4 and only the undersigned’s legal assistant is experienced in preparing such briefs for filing: (1) a response brief in No. 14-0843 styled In re State Farm Lloyds, Richard Freymann, and James D. Lawson due in the Texas Supreme Court on May 5; (2) a response brief in No. 14-0846 styled In re State Farm Lloyds, Richard Freymann, and Rolando Renteria due in the Texas Supreme Court on May 5; and 3 (3) an appellant brief in accelerated appeal No. 01-15-00232-CV styled Nationwide Distribution Services, Inc. v. Robert Jones and Poly Trucking, Inc. due in the First Court of Appeals on May 8. Although the undersigned’s legal assistant is excellent, she cannot prepare more than one brief at a time for electronic filing. A deadline of Monday, May 11 would allow her to do it all. 9. No extension has been previously requested or granted to extend the time to file respondent’s Brief on the Merits. CONCLUSION AND PRAYER For these reasons, Respondent Southern Instrument & Valve Company, Inc. asks the Court to grant an extension of time to file its brief until May 11, 2015. Respectfully submitted, RAMEY, CHANDLER, QUINN & ZITO, PC By: /s/ Jack McKinley Jack McKinley State Bar No. 13716300 750 Bering Drive, Suite 600 Houston, Texas 77057 Telephone: (713) 266-0074 Facsimile: (713) 266-1064 jmm@ramey-chandler.com Attorneys for Respondent 4 CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE I have been advised by appellee’s counsel in an email dated April 24, 2015 that he is unopposed to this motion. /s/ Jack McKinley JACK McKINLEY CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that the foregoing has been served upon all counsel of record, on this 24th day of April , 2015, via electronic filing: R. Russell Hollenbeck Via Electronic Filing Bradley W. Snead Wright & Close, L.L.P. One Riverway, Suite 2200 Houston, Texas 77056 Counsel for Appellant, P.S. Investments, L.P. /s/ Jack McKinley JACK McKINLEY 5