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Richard Wershe, Jr. v. City of Detroit, Michigan, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 23-1902, 23-1903 · judgment August 8, 2024


Certiorari denied · January 21, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

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

Questions presented

  1. Does the two-factor equitable tolling test supplied by this Court in Holland v. Florida, 560 U.S. 631, 649 (2010) apply to all federal equitable tolling cases, all prisoner cases, or only habeas cases, and was the Sixth Circuit correct to reject it in favor of its own five-factor test in Zappone v. United States, 870 F.3d 551, 559 (6th Cir. 2017)?

  2. Should this Court formalize and standardize the emerging ‘prisoner-fear-of-retaliation doctrine’ among the circuits, which is available in other circuits but which the Sixth Circuit declined to adopt?

  3. Is review required to clarify the distinction between the federal equitable tolling doctrine and equitable estoppel doctrine, where both lower courts applied the ‘estoppel’ requirement that a defendant be the cause of Petitioner’s extraordinary circumstances (i.e., his fear of retaliation) to warrant equitable tolling?

  4. Did the lower courts err requiring review in ruling that diligence is lacking, where, upon a prisoner’s release from prison after 32 years, he promptly found an attorney, began working with said attorney to bring his claims, and brought said claims the day before his one-year probationary release period had ended (to ensure those he feared could not falsely convict him, which would his life sentence)?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Nabih H. Ayad
Ayad Law, PLLC

For respondent
John G. Adam
Law Office of John G. Adam, LLC

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 21 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 31 2024
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/17/2025.
  3. Dec 13 2024
    Waiver of right of respondent Federal Respondents to respond filed.
  4. Dec 03 2024
    Waiver of right of respondents Carol Dixon, Herman Groman, Lynn Helland and E. James King to respond filed.
  5. Nov 26 2024
    Waiver of right of respondents City of Detroit, William Jasper, Kevin Greene to respond filed.
  6. Nov 06 2024
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 16, 2024)