Jordan L. Michelson v. Trustees of Boston College, dba Boston College Law School

Question 1: Is the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution incorporated as to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment? If the Court answers in the affirmative, it must then decide whether the Massachusetts Appeals Court infringed upon Petitioner’s Seventh Amendment right to a “trial by jury” when, in a qualifying civil suit arising under the common law, the M.A.C. engaged in factfinding and made a dispositive determination of material fact. Question 2: Does Celotex allow courts to read negative material facts into the undisputed record for purposes of summary judgment? Below, the Massachusetts Appeals Court raised a novel, case-dispositive issue of law sua sponte on a summary judgment disposition while discovery was still ongoing. The M.A.C. then resolved that issue by making a negative inference of fact, adverse to the nonmoving party, from the silence of the record. The question is whether the M.A.C. misapplied the summary judgment standard articulated in Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986), which controls in Massachusetts. Question 3: Does the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution give a civil plaintiff the right to notice of, and an opportunity to respond to, potentially dispositive defenses to his claim? If the court answers in the affirmative, the issue is whether the Massachusetts Appeals Court trammeled those rights when it raised a complete defense sua sponte and made a dispositive inference of fact relevant to that defense without affording the Plaintiff-Appellant any opportunity to respond or present rebuttal evidence.