Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Charles E. White, Jr., et al. v. Chevron Corporation, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 17-16208 · judgment November 13, 2018

Certiorari denied · May 28, 2019

Pre-decision estimate: 6% cert probability (95% interval 4%–9%)

Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a Ninth Circuit decision below, and counsel who has filed here before, and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

This is an action under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) for breach of fiduciary duties. In order to prove such a breach, a plaintiff must provide that the fiduciaries failed to follow an appropriate process in making their decision. But participants in ERISA plans are not privy to the fiduciaries’ decision-making process. In pleading a breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA, is it sufficient for a plaintiff to allege a deficient decision-making process indirectly through inferences from the facts known to her?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Michael Armin Wolff
Schlichter Bogard & Denton LLP

For respondent
Jonathan D. Hacker
O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Case

Subject area
Economic Activity (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, May 28, 2019 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

May 28 2019
Petition DENIED.
May 09 2019
Supplemental brief of petitioners Charles E. White, Jr., et al. filed. (Distributed)
May 07 2019
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/23/2019.
May 03 2019
Waiver of right of respondents Chevron Corporation, et al. to respond filed.
Apr 03 2019
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 3, 2019)