Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

John C. Kitchin, Jr., et al. v. Bridgeton Landfill, LLC, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 19-2072 · judgment July 8, 2021


Certiorari denied · February 22, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 8% cert probability (95% interval 5%–13%)

Before the decision, about 1.9× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel with five or more prior petitions here, a circuit split argued in the petition, and an Eighth Circuit decision below, and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

Under the Class Action Fairness Act’s “local controversy” exception, a federal district court must decline jurisdiction over a class action in which, among other requirements, there is a local defendant “whose alleged conduct forms a significant basis for the claims asserted by the proposed plaintiff class.” 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(4)(A)(i)(II)(bb). The question presented is whether this requirement can be satisfied where the local and non-local defendants engaged in the same alleged conduct (as the Sixth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits hold), or whether the alleged conduct of the local defendant must be different from that of the non-local defendants (as the Fifth and Eighth Circuits hold).

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Stuart Banner
UCLA School of Law Supreme Court Clinic

For respondent
William G. Beck
Lathrop GPM LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Feb 22 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jan 26 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/18/2022.
  3. Jan 24 2022
    Reply of petitioners John C. Kitchin, Jr., et al. filed. (Distributed)
  4. Jan 10 2022
    Brief of respondents Bridgeton Landfill, LLC, et al. in opposition filed.
  5. Nov 29 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including January 10, 2022.
  6. Nov 24 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from December 9, 2021 to January 10, 2022, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Nov 04 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 9, 2021)