Supreme Court Report

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: 6% cert probability (95% interval 3%–11%)

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

Question presented

  1. 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).

Counsel of record

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

For respondent
Allison Jones Rushing
Williams and Connolly LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, January 7, 2019 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

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