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Michael D. Ellis v. Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, No. 19-1074 · judgment May 13, 2020


Certiorari denied · April 26, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

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

Question presented

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, expressly saves certain state laws from preemption. For those state laws that are saved, federal courts must often decide which state’s law to apply. The question presented is: What is the correct test to apply in deciding whether an otherwise applicable state law—here, a state law prohibiting discretion-conferring provisions in insurance contracts—can be displaced by an ERISA plan’s choice-of-law clause?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jonathan Ellis Taylor
Gupta Wessler LLP

For respondent
Byrne Joseph Decker
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Apr 26 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Apr 08 2021
    Reply of petitioner Michael D. Ellis filed. (Distributed)
  3. Apr 07 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/23/2021.
  4. Mar 18 2021
    Brief of respondent Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston in opposition filed.
  5. Feb 05 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including March 18, 2021.
  6. Feb 04 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 16, 2021 to March 18, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Jan 08 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 16, 2021)