As the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday analyzed judicial powers to reopen dismissed cases, a Halliburton attorney sought to steer oral arguments toward questions the high court hadn’t agreed to address, testing some justices’ patience and eventually prompting the attorney to insist he wasn’t “afraid of the question presented.”
The maneuvering occurred during arguments in Waetzig v. Halliburton Energy Services Inc., a technical dispute involving civil procedure, and it was apparently anticipated by Vincent Levy of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP, counsel for a onetime Halliburton account leader whose termination at age 66 spurred him to sue under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Question Presented in Waetzig v. Halliburton Energy Services
Whether a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41 voluntary dismissal without prejudice is a “final judgment, order, or proceeding” under FRCP 60(b).
Levy kicked off his argument Tuesday by contending that voluntary dismissals without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41 are “final proceedings” and therefore eligible for reopening under FRCP 60. But he swiftly shifted to accusing Halliburton of deflecting attention from that issue.
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