Thursday, January 18, 2018

Wishnev v. Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. (9th Cir. - Jan. 18, 2018)

Am I wrong, or does it seem like the Ninth Circuit has been certifying more and more questions to state supreme courts over the past half-dozen years or so?

The Ninth Circuit certifies today yet another question to the California Supreme Court.  This one is about usury and permissible interest rates (in particular, compound interest).

I assume the California Supreme Court will take the thing and decide it.  Though I wonder what the informal "cap" would be on how much work a state supreme court would do for the Ninth Circuit before it stopped doing stuff for 'em.  Five cases a year?  Ten?

If I was more rigorous, I'd actually run the numbers and see if my intuition is correct that there's been a slight uptick in certification in the Ninth Circuit.

But I'm sick.  And lazy.  At least today.

So I'll just speculate.

Ah, the joys of academia.