Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Walid Jammal, et al. v. American Family Insurance Company, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 17-4125 · judgment January 29, 2019
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Questions presented
Like many federal statutes, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 incorporates the traditional common-law test for distinguishing between employees (who are covered by the Act) and independent contractors (who are not). This case presents two questions about that important and oft-litigated test, both of which have divided the courts of appeals:
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Whether a district court’s finding that a worker is an employee under the common-law test should be reviewed for clear error, as the Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits hold; using a hybrid standard, as the Second and Eighth Circuits hold; or de novo, as the Sixth Circuit held here.
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Whether the same traditional inquiry governs under all the statutes that incorporate the commonlaw test for employee status, as several circuits hold, or whether courts may modify the test based on the purpose of each statute, as the Sixth Circuit held here.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Brian Halligan Fletcher
Department of Justice
For respondent
Seth P. Waxman
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Proceedings
- Jan 27 2020Rehearing DENIED.
- Jan 08 2020DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/24/2020.
- Jan 02 2020Petition for Rehearing filed.
- Dec 09 2019Petition DENIED.
- Nov 13 2019DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/6/2019.
- Nov 13 2019Reply of petitioners Walid Jammal, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Oct 25 2019Brief of respondents American Family Insurance Company, et al. in opposition filed.
- Sep 04 2019Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including October 25, 2019.
- Aug 30 2019Motion to extend the time to file a response from September 25, 2019 to October 25, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
- Aug 22 2019Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 25, 2019)
- Jun 11 2019Application (18A1287) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until August 22, 2019.
- Jun 06 2019Application (18A1287) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from June 23, 2019 to August 22, 2019, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.