Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Jim Miller v. Eric Olsen, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 16-35717 · judgment May 31, 2018

Certiorari denied · June 3, 2019

Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability

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

Question presented

Whether (1) the Oregon District Court and Ninth Circuit erred in applying the “primary purpose” test rather than the “surrounding circumstances” test to determine whether a written “retirement” plan is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), where there existed no ERISA plan against which to reference that plan in making this determination; and (2) whether those Courts erred in their application of the “primary purpose test” in the event that the test provided the appropriate analytic framework under the circumstances of the case.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jon Harris Weiner
Law Office of Jon Weiner

For respondent
Robert B. Miller
Kilmer, Voorhees & Laurick, PC

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, June 3, 2019 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

Jun 03 2019
Petition DENIED.
May 14 2019
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/30/2019.
May 06 2019
Waiver of right of respondents Eric Olsen; Euterpe, Inc.; and Somerset, LLC to respond filed.
Nov 13 2018
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 30, 2019)