US: Supreme Court postpones arguments in Tesla subsidiary antitrust fee case

The Supreme Court was set to hear argument on March 19 in Salt River Project v. Tesla Energy Operations, but on March 12 the court postponed oral argument and the case may ultimately settle before argument.

This case presents the question of whether a district-court order denying antitrust state-action immunity may be appealed immediately, or only after a final judgment. The underlying dispute pits rooftop-solar company SolarCity (now part of Tesla) against Salt River Project, an Arizona electrical utility, in a battle over rooftop solar electricity generation.

After SolarCity sued Salt River Project over antitrust claims, Salt River Project unsuccessfully moved to dismiss based on the antitrust doctrine of state-action immunity. Salt River Project sought to appeal the district court’s denial of immunity to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit before the district court entered final judgment. Although litigants typically must wait until final judgment before appealing, Salt River tried to invoke the “collateral-order” exception, under which certain interlocutory orders may be appealed immediately, without waiting for final judgment.

The 9th Circuit dismissed the appeal and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a circuit split over whether denials of antitrust state-action immunity are immediately appealable under the collateral-order doctrine.

Full Content: EE News

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