The death of Justice Scalia has led to questions over the direction of the court in the future, as now the eight member court is equally divided between liberals and conservatives. Following this, the company filed that the decision reached by a federal jury was in violation of class action law, and used two rulings given by Justice Scalia as examples, that favored Wal-Mart in 2011 and Comcast in 2013, respectively.
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The company argued in its petition to the Supreme Court that the $1.06 billion judgment violated class-action laws in multiple ways and should be set aside.
“Growing political uncertainties due to recent events with the Supreme Court and increased likelihood for unfavorable outcomes for business involved in class-action suits have changed Dow’s risk assessment of the situation”, the company said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. Justice Scalia’s death-and a political stalemate between the White House and Congress on how to replace him-means the court is more likely to deadlock in the short term on matters that divide it, including some business-related issues such as class-action litigation. Dow believes this settlement is the right decision for the company and our shareholders. Dow Chemical says it will pay $835 million to settle a long-standing class action lawsuit, after the death of Scalia decreased its chances of prevailing at the Supreme Court. The final judgment in the case was reduced to reflect $139 million in settlements with the other defendants before trial.
Scalia wrote the court’s majority decisions in both cases – and in favor of the businesses.
Dow appealed the liability finding and award to a federal appeals court in Denver, which rejected its challenges to urethane purchasers’ class-action claims in September 2014. Any 4-4 decision by the court in the meantime could leave decisions by lower courtsâ “such as the Kansas decision with respect to Dowâ “intact”.
Jeffrey M. Harris, an attorney with one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs in the case, declined to comment on the settlement beyond what Dow had disclosed.
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Dow’s statement said that the charges of price fixing had been investigated by the Justice Department, which had closed its probe in 2007 without taking any action against Dow.
