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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: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a circuit split argued in the petition, 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

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

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