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BNSF Railway Company v. Juanita Nye, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Jeffrey Nye

Paid petition · Supreme Court of Oklahoma, No. 113,142 · judgment June 19, 2018

Certiorari denied · April 22, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

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

Question presented

In Norfolk Southern Railway Company v. Shanklin, 529 U.S. 344, 359 (2000), this Court held that the Federal Rail Safety Act preempts a negligence claim against a railroad for inadequate warning signs at a rail–highway crossing when federal funds participate in the installation of warning devices at the crossing. The question presented is: When the project documents and authenticating testimony demonstrate that federal funds participated in a state-wide project to install warning devices at grade crossings and that the project included the crossing at issue, is the state tort claim for inadequate signalization preempted as a matter of law?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Charles Glaston Cole
Steptoe & Johnson, LLP

For respondent
Robert S. Peck
Center for Constitutional Litigation, PC

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Apr 22 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Apr 10 2019
    Letter of April 10, 2019 from counsel for petitioner received. (Distributed)
  3. Apr 08 2019
    Letter of April 4, 2019 from counsel for respondent received. (Distributed)
  4. Apr 02 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/18/2019.
  5. Apr 02 2019
    Reply of petitioner BNSF Railway Company filed. (Distributed)
  6. Mar 19 2019
    Brief of respondent Juanita Nye in opposition filed.
  7. Feb 25 2019
    Amicus brief of Association of American Railroads not accepted for filing. (February 27, 2019) (Corrected version submitted)
  8. Feb 25 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of Association of American Railroads filed. (2/27,2019)
  9. Feb 05 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including March 27, 2019.
  10. Feb 01 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 25, 2019 to March 27, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  11. Jan 24 2019
    Response Requested. (Due February 25, 2019)
  12. Jan 16 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/15/2019.
  13. Jan 08 2019
    Waiver of right of respondent Juanita Nye to respond filed.
  14. Dec 24 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 4, 2019)