Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
General Dynamics Corporation, et al. v. Susan Scharpf
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 24-1465 · judgment May 9, 2025
(petition-stage, structural)
About 3.3× the 4.1% base rate. The model weights this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a circuit split argued in the petition, and a business petitioner.
Question presented
Congress has provided a four-year statute of limitations for antitrust claims alleging a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. See 15 U.S.C. 1 (Sherman Act), 15b (Clayton Act statute of limitations). Like other federal limitations periods, the Section 15b statute of limitations may be tolled under the doctrine of fraudulent concealment. In the decision below, the Fourth Circuit parted ways with the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits in holding that plaintiffs who allege an unwritten conspiratorial agreement sufficiently plead an affirmative act of fraudulent concealment—even though nearly all plaintiffs claiming an unlawful conspiracy will be able to make such an allegation, and even though the bare assertion of an unwritten agreement does not reflect any active attempt to mislead third parties in order to conceal the conspiracy. The question presented is: Whether plaintiffs adequately plead that defendants engaged in fraudulent concealment, for purposes of tolling the Section 15b statute of limitations, by alleging that defendants maintained an unwritten agreement.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Donald B. Verrilli Jr.
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
For respondent
Deepak Gupta
Gupta Wessler LLP
Case
Subject area
Economic Activity (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Amicus briefs
2 cert-stage
Proceedings
- May 18 2026Hold Petition in Abeyance of General Dynamics Corp., et al. submitted.
- Jan 12 2026The Solicitor General is invited to file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States.
- Dec 10 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/9/2026.
- Dec 09 2025Reply of petitioners General Dynamics Corp., et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Nov 21 2025Brief of respondent Susan Scharpf in opposition filed.
- Oct 31 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including November 21, 2025.
- Oct 30 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response from November 14, 2025 to November 21, 2025, submitted to The Clerk.
- Oct 15 2025Brief amicus curiae of Shipbuilders Council of America filed.
- Oct 15 2025Brief amici curiae of United States Chamber of Commerce, et al. filed.
- Sep 25 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 14, 2025.
- Sep 23 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 15, 2025 to November 14, 2025, submitted to The Clerk.
- Sep 11 2025Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 15, 2025)