Supreme Court Report

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Debe Olson v. Farmers New World Life Insurance Company, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 18-20521 · judgment August 7, 2019


Dismissed · September 17, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 1% cert probability

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

Question presented

One: Whether the trial court improperly granted a Motion to Dismiss the putative class because there was no notice to the putative class and therefore no right to be heard violating the putative class’s rights to due process and notice under the 14th Amendment and Rule 23(e) FRCP? Two: Whether equitable tolling applies and this case should be differentiated from Resh v. China Agritech because there was no notice to the Farmers class, and Farmers’ taking of the policyholders’ money was done secretly, which differentiates it from Resh where there were repeated notices to sophisticated investors regarding their rights? Three: The Supreme Court needs to rule that a lack of notice to the class of unlitigated undisclosed deceptive acts and the loss of class action status for other reasons gives the Defendants unequal protection under the 14th Amendment and is distinguishable from China Agritech v. Resh.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
David Sheller
Sheller Law Firm, PLLC

For respondent
Joshua David Lichtman
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP

Case

Conference history

Proceedings

  1. Sep 17 2020
    Case removed from Docket.
  2. Aug 17 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 21, 2020)