Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Editor's Note :

Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter

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Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
14-1382	10th Cir.	Jan 19, 2016 Tr.Aud.	Mar 7, 2016	8-0	Sotomayor	OT 2015

Holding: For purposes of diversity jurisdiction, citizenship of an unincorporated entity depends on the citizenship of all of its members. Because, under Maryland law, a real estate investment trust is held and managed for the benefit of its shareholders, Americold’s members include its shareholders.

Judgment: Affirmed, 8-0, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor on March 7, 2016.

Opinion analysis: Justices choose bright-line rule limiting diversity jurisdiction over business trusts (Ronald Mann)
Argument analysis: Justices appear to be leaning toward bright-line rule limiting diversity jurisdiction over artificial entities (Ronald Mann)
Argument preview: Court to consider when a trust is a “citizen” for purposes of diversity jurisdiction (Ronald Mann)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
May 15 2015	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 22, 2015)
Jun 22 2015	Waiver of right of respondent ConAgra Foods, Inc., et al. to respond filed.
Jul 8 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 28, 2015.
Jul 23 2015	Response Requested . (Due August 24, 2015)
Aug 12 2015	Brief of respondents ConAgra Foods, Inc., and Swift-Eckrich, Inc. in opposition filed.
Aug 26 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 28, 2015.
Oct 1 2015	Petition GRANTED.
Oct 16 2015	Letter from counsel for the respondents advising Clerk of position on the merits.
Nov 13 2015	The time to file the joint appendix and petitioners' brief on the merits is extended to and including November 23, 2015.
Nov 23 2015	Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed)
Nov 23 2015	Brief of petitioners Americold Logistics, LLC, et al. filed.
Nov 23 2015	Joint motion to dismiss Americold Logistics, LLC as a dispensable party filed.
Nov 24 2015	SET FOR ARGUMENT on Tuesday, January 19,2016
Nov 30 2015	Motion DISTRIBUTED for Conference of December 4, 2015.
Nov 30 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Winston Wen-Young Wong filed.
Nov 30 2015	Brief amicus curiae of National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts filed.
Dec 4 2015	Motion to dismiss Americold Logistics, LLC as a dispensable party GRANTED.
Dec 4 2015	Record requested from U.S.C.A. 10th Circuit.
Dec 8 2015	Record received from the U.S.C.A. 10th Circuit is located on PACER, with the exception of the pleadings enclosed in one box.
Dec 15 2015	CIRCULATED.
Dec 23 2015	Brief of respondents ConAgra Foods, Inc., and Swift-Eckrich, Inc. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 12 2016	Reply of petitioner Americold Realty Trust filed. (Distributed)
Jan 19 2016	Argued. For petitioner: Michael D. Pospisil, Kansas City, Mo. For respondents: John M. Duggan, Overland Park, Kan.
Mar 7 2016	Adjudged to be AFFIRMED. Sotomayor, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Apr 8 2016	JUDGMENT ISSUED

Featured Posts

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter
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This Week at the Court
On Monday, the Supreme Court released orders from the June 20 conference; the justices granted eight new cases, for a total of five hours of oral argument next term: Guerrero-Lasprilla v. Barr, Ovalles v. Barr, Dex Media Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP, Maine Community Health Options v. United States, Moda Health Plan Inc. v. United States, Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Co. v. United States, Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc. and Banister v. Davis.
Also on Monday, the justices released their opinions in four argued cases: United States v. Davis, Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, Iancu v. Brunetti and The Dutra Group v. Batterton.
The Supreme Court will release opinions in one or more argued cases on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Major Cases
- Department of Commerce v. New York
  (1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq; (2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker -- including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials -- without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and (3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
- Gamble v. United States
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Recent Decisions
- Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media Where commercial or financial information is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an assurance of privacy, the information is “confidential” within the meaning of 5 U. S. C. §552(b)(4), the Freedom of Information Act’s Exemption 4.
- Iancu v. Brunetti The Lanham Act prohibition on the registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks infringes the First Amendment.
- The Dutra Group v. Batterton A plaintiff may not recover punitive damages on a maritime claim of unseaworthiness.
- United States v. Davis Title 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(3)(B), which provides enhanced penalties for using a firearm during a “crime of violence,” is unconstitutionally vague.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Atlanta Gas Light Co. v. Bennett Regulator Guards Inc. (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred in concluding that it had jurisdiction to review the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to institute inter partes review of respondent’s patent over respondent’s objection that it was time-barred; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred when it rejected the longstanding principle that a dismissal without prejudice leaves the parties as if a suit had never been brought, splitting the circuits.
- Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California (1) Whether the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy is judicially reviewable; and (2) whether DHS’s decision to wind down the DACA policy is lawful.
- Kelly v. United States Whether a public official “defraud[s]” the government of its property by advancing a “public policy reason” for an official decision that is not her subjective “real reason” for making the decision.
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On June 3, Justice Clarence Thomas spoke with David Rubenstein for the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual lecture at the Supreme Court.

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Cases argued	69
Cases decided	61
Summary reversals	5
Merits cases granted to date	74

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