Opinion ID: 147782
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of Certification to Puerto Rico Supreme Court

Text: After more than nine years of litigation, a prior appeal, and having lost at trial, defendants ask that questions be certified to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. The request is more than a little lateit was not raised until after remandand the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying certification. See U.S. Steel v. M. DeMatteo Constr. Co., 315 F.3d 43, 53-54 (1st Cir.2002). In addition to being untimely, the two questions defendants ask to be certified are the wrong questions. Defendants say the dispositive, unsettled questions of Puerto Rican law on the procedural due process claim are (1) whether a one-year appointment made under Law 52 creates a legitimate expectation of continued employment for the entire year if, at the time of appointment, the Law 52 allotment was only for six months; and (2) whether the Municipality must continue funding those appointments from other funds once Law 52 funds expire. The more significant question of Puerto Rican law necessary to resolve plaintiffs' claim, however, is whether, under municipal law, the Municipality could choose to use general municipal funds to pay for Law 52 positions beyond the funding from the Law 52 grant, so as to create a legitimate expectation of an approximately one-year appointment. The district court held that the Municipality was allowed, but not required, to do so under municipal law. See Acevedo-Feliciano V, 542 F.Supp.2d at 153-54. The remaining questions concerning the application of that principle to the facts of this case were for the federal court to resolve. We decline to certify, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to do so.