Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Gregory Aime, et al. v. JTH Tax, Inc., dba Liberty Tax Service, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 17-1859, 17-1905 · judgment August 8, 2018

Certiorari denied · January 7, 2019

Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Whether a federal court of appeals in a case based on diversity jurisdiction should certify an issue of state law to the highest court of that state when the federal court is divided on that dispositive state law issue, including whether this Court should remand for the court of appeals to certify an issue of Virginia common law regarding contract formation to Supreme Court of Virginia, as this Court similarly did for unsettled questions of state law in Lehman Bros. v. Schein, 416 U.S. 386 (1974).

For petitioner
John R. Ates
Ates Law Firm, P.C.

For respondent
Allison Jones Rushing
Williams and Connolly LLP

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Jan 07 2019
Petition DENIED.
Dec 19 2018
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/4/2019.
Dec 12 2018
Waiver of right of respondents JTH Tax, Inc., et al. to respond filed.
Dec 04 2018
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 9, 2019)