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W&T Offshore, Incorporated v. Apache Deepwater, L.L.C.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 17-20599 · judgment July 16, 2019

Certiorari denied · December 9, 2019

Pre-decision estimate: 16% cert probability (95% interval 11%–23%)

Before the decision, about 3.9× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a Fifth Circuit decision below, and a circuit split argued in the petition, and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

Whether a federal court applying the law of a civillaw jurisdiction should follow the methodology that the jurisdiction’s highest court would apply—as the First Circuit has held—or whether the federal court should follow the precedent of the jurisdiction’s highest court—as the Fifth Circuit held below—even though a court in the jurisdiction would not do so. (i)

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Neal Kumar Katyal
Milbank LLP

For respondent
William R. H. Merrill
Susman Godfrey, LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

Dec 09 2019
Petition DENIED.
Nov 20 2019
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/6/2019.
Nov 13 2019
Waiver of right of respondent Apache Deepwater, L.L.C. to respond filed.
Nov 12 2019
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 13, 2019)