Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the following cases of interest to the business community:  

Appellate Jurisdiction—Cases Consolidated in District Court

Hall v. Hall, No. 16-1150

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42 permits a district court to consolidate actions that involve a common question of law or fact.  Sometimes, even though cases are consolidated, one of the consolidated cases will reach final judgment while others remain pending.  The lower courts have divided as to whether a final judgment in a subset of the consolidated cases is a final, appealable order—or whether the parties must wait until all of the consolidated actions have been resolved.  In Gelboim v. Bank of America Corp., 135 S. Ct. 897 (2015), the Court resolved a similar question in the context of multidistrict litigation, holding unanimously that the losing party has an immediate right to appeal when final judgment is entered in its case, regardless of the status of the other cases.  The Court today granted certiorari to consider whether the same rule should apply in actions consolidated under Rule 42 within a single federal judicial district.


Fair Labor Standards Act—Car Dealer Service Advisors

Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, No. 16-1362

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that certain employees be paid overtime.  Two Terms ago, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether service advisors at car dealers—the employees who interact with vehicle owners when they take their cars in for repair—are subject to the exemption from the overtime rule for any "salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles."  In the earlier action, the Court held that a Department of Labor regulation requiring car dealers to pay overtime to service advisors was not entitled to Chevron deference.  But the Court did not decide how the FLSA should be interpreted in the service-advisor context.  136 S. Ct. 2117 (2016).  After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the FLSA entitles service advisors to overtime, the Supreme Court has again granted certiorari.


Labor Law—Mandatory Union Fees for Public-Sector Employees

Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, No. 16-1466

Under Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), the Constitution permits the government to require public-sector employees to pay agency fees to the labor union that represents their interests.  Last Term, the Supreme Court divided equally in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Ass'n, 136 S. Ct. 1083 (2016), which presented the question whether Abood should be overruled.  With Justice Gorsuch's confirmation as the Court's ninth Justice, the Court has again granted certiorari to consider whether Abood should be overruled.

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