The Senate will do what it wants with the vacancy on the Supreme Court, but businesses have bottom lines to worry about.
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Dow Chemical Co. had planned to take its fight against a $1.06 billion class-action lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court, but the death of Justice Antonin Scalia prompted the multinational corporation to alter its strategy and settle the case instead.
Dow filed a petition in the Supreme Court, arguing that the judgment violated class action law in multiple ways, particularly with respect to two rulings authored by Justice Scalia, one in 2011 favoring Wal-Mart Stores Inc and another in 2013 favoring Comcast Corp.
Dow said today that while it is settling the case, “it continues to strongly believe that it was not part of any conspiracy and the judgment was fundamentally flawed as a matter of class action law” and that Dow cooperated with an extensive investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which closed its investigation in 2007 without taking any or proposing any action against Dow.
“With the untimely, unfortunate death of Justice Scalia, it leaves in question the current structure of the court”, Dow Chemical spokeswoman Rachelle Schikorra said.
Dow, which is merging with DuPont to create a $130 billion conglomerate, had petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.
Meanwhile, Scalia was “a strong supporter of limiting class action lawsuits against companies”, according to Quartz.
“In order to assess risk, the business community likes to expect stability”, Ms. Richardson said. That year, a federal-court jury in Kansas City, Kansas, awarded urethane purchasers $400 million in damages over claims that Dow engaged in price fixing.
Dow Chemical Co’s docket number for its Supreme Court bid is No. 14A665. The final judgment in the case was reduced to reflect $139 million in settlements with the other defendants before trial.
Dow Chemical said Friday that it no longer thinks it could win its appeal because of Scalia’s death on February 13.
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The court is preparing to rule in the Tyson Foods case, with the possibility Justice Anthony Kennedy could guide the outcome on more narrow grounds involving labor law, rather than on class-action principles.
