LaWanda D. Small v. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, a Minnesota Corporation

In Lehman Brothers v. Schein, 416 U.S. 386 (1974), this Court encouraged federal courts to certify uncertain questions of state law to state high courts. Since then, many lower courts, especially the Ninth Circuit, have summarily refused to certify those questions to state high courts. That is what happened here. In both Small v. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and Moriarty v. American Life Insurance Company, the Ninth Circuit refused to certify the same controlling state-law issue to the California Supreme Court, thereby sweeping away a number of pending appeals on this issue. In so ruling, the Ninth Circuit gave no weight to the federalism interests WKHFHUWLÀFDWLRQGRFWULQHZDVLQWHQGHGWRSURWHFWOHDYLQJ hundreds of thousands of Californians whose life insurance policies were terminated in violation of California law with no realistic access to justice. The question presented is whether a federal court must consider federalism interests when asked to certify important and unresolved questions of state law.