Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura Taylor Swain has postponed to June 4 from May 13 a hearing concerning a lift stay motion for more than $5.5 billion in Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority, Puerto Rico Infrastructure Authority, and Convention Center District Authority bonds.
The parties moving to lift the stays concerning their debt — several bond insurers, Bank of New York Mellon, and U.S. Bank Trust, N.A. — filed replies in the three cases on April 30.
On Tuesday, the Puerto Rico Oversight Board and Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority filed a motion to be allowed to file “sur-replies” and postpone the hearing to June 4. Sur-replies are additional replies in a civil case filed after the motion has been fully briefed.
The government parties said they “seek leave to file sur-reply briefs of no more than 30 pages each to address the voluminous discovery materials and expert report submitted for the first time in the replies, as well as the arguments based on and related to these new evidentiary materials. The government parties have not had an opportunity to address these evidentiary materials or movants’ arguments relating to them.
“Without such an opportunity, the court and movants would be confronted for the first time at the preliminary hearing with an abundance of new responses,” the government parties wrote.
Late on Thursday Swain approved the request for sur-replies and to postpone the lift stay hearing.