Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[big-yank]

I suspect that you never read the original 28 page Fairholme complaint because no discovery was ever needed to take that one to trial. It was a cut and dried takings claim under the Fifth Amendment. And no discovery was needed to address the government's initial motion for dismissal. You missed the entire point of this extended conversation. THERE WAS NO NEED FOR DISCOVERY AT ALL.

This case could have gone to briefs in mid-2014, amended briefs in late 2014, oral arguments in early 2015 and gone to Judge Sweeney for a decision in mid-2015.

Instead, we are still in discovery for the original motion to dismiss in 2013. That is sheer insanity. Fairhome is paying out the wazoo millions of dollars in billable hours for absolutely nothing except to benefit other suits filed against the government? Meanwhile, Bruce's investors are seeing a huge amount of resources tied up in legal expense, no growth in Fannie Mae S/P with resulting increases in their fund's investment value and no glimmer of a positive verdict or any settlement on the horizon.

If that is a "pompous" conclusion, so be it. It just seems like simple, straightforward factual reasoning to me. The Fairholme team is either being pig-headed, at best, or possibly other unsavory observations about insensitive to the racking up of needless costs borne eventually by Fairholme fund investors, in my view. Over 3 years since the initial filing and everything is bogged down in discovery and a ruling on whether to even hear the case?

This is not a case of delays prompted by government stonewalling document release. That all sounds good in blogs condemning the government's alleged misdeeds. But the fact remains that chasing the documents around the mulberry bush for 3 years was the result of plaintiff's pointless pursuit of "smoking guns" unnecessary to pursue its own claims against the government. It is a self-inflicted wound and, in fact, may actually have led to numerous other suits being filed that even further bogged down the legal process and any chance for an actual settlement... because the limited Sweeney document releases emboldened other plaintiffs to jump on the bandwagon and try to also grab some cash out of Uncle Sam's deep pockets.

All JMHO.