Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
U.S. Well Services, Inc. v. Scott Easom, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 21-20202 · judgment June 15, 2022
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (“WARN”) Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq., generally requires employers to provide sixty days’ notice prior to a mass layoff or plant closing. However, the WARN Act contains an exception to the sixty-day notice requirement “if the plant closing or mass layoff is due to any form of natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake, or the drought currently ravaging the farmlands of the United States.” 29 U.S.C. § 2102(b)(2)(B). This case presents two questions which were each decided differently by the district court and the court of appeals:
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Does COVID-19 qualify as a natural disaster under the WARN Act’s natural disaster exception, 29 U.S.C. § 2102(b)(2)(B)?
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What causal connection is required to trigger the WARN Act’s natural disaster exception, which applies when a plant closing or mass layoff is due to any form of natural disaster?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
David Matthew Korn
Phelps Dunbar LLP
For respondent
Gabriel Assaad
McDonald Worley
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Proceedings
- Nov 14 2022Petition DENIED.
- Oct 25 2022DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/10/2022.
- Oct 19 2022Waiver of right of respondent Scott Easom, et al. to respond filed.
- Oct 05 2022Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 10, 2022)