Opinion ID: 808160
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Certification to Ohio Supreme Court

Text: The localities argue that the district court erred in denying their request to certify questions regarding the applicability of the occupancy-tax laws to the online travel companies. The localities requested certification as part of their cross-motion for summary judgment, after the district court had resolved these questions during review of the online travel companies’ motion to dismiss. “The decision whether or not to utilize a certification procedure lies within the sound discretion of the district court.” Pennington v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 553 F.3d 447, 449-50 (6th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). “Certification is most appropriate when the question is new and state law is unsettled,” but the “federal courts generally will not trouble our sister state courts every time an arguably unsettled question of state law comes across our desks.” Id. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). In an unpublished opinion, we have stated that certification is disfavored where a plaintiff files in federal court and then, after an unfavorable judgment, “seek[s] refuge” in a state forum. Local 219 Plumbing & Pipefitting Indus. Pension Fund v. Buck Consultants, LLC, 311 F. App’x 827, 831 (6th Cir. 2009). “The appropriate time to seek certification of a state-law issue is before a District Court resolves the issue, not after receiving an unfavorable ruling.” Id. at 832. The view that state-law issue certification should be sought before, not after, a district court resolves the issue, is shared by many of our sister circuits. See, e.g., Thompson v. Paul, 547 F.3d 1055, 1065 (9th Cir. 2008) (“There is a presumption against certifying a question to a state supreme court after a federal district court has issued a decision.”); Enfield v. A.B. Chance Co., 228 F.3d 1245, 1255 (10th Cir. 2000) (denying certification where party did not seek certification until adverse decision and stating “[t]hat fact alone persuades us that certification is inappropriate”); Perkins v. Clark Equip. Co., Melrose Div., 823 F.2d 207, 209-210 (8th Cir. 1987) (discouraging requests for certification made by a party after summary judgment has been decided against that party because “[o]therwise, the initial federal court decision Nos. 10-4531/4545 City of Columbus, et al. v. Hotels.com, et al. Page 16 will be nothing but a gamble with certification sought only after an adverse decision”). The localities in this case waited to request certification until after the district court had already made numerous decisions in this case. The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to certify this issue to the Ohio Supreme Court.