Court Opinion

ID: 9795266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:24:02.691195+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:28:32.761976
License: Public Domain

WINCHESTER, J.,
with whom OPALA, V.C.J. and HODGES, J. join, dissenting.
I dissent from the Court’s opinion. I would decline to answer the question. Title 20 O.S.2001, § 1602 allows this Court to answer certified questions that are “determinative” of an issue in pending litigation.1 The certified question before us involves the interpretation of a federal statute, 29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(A), and, is not a state’question. Kentucky Ass’n of Health Plans, Inc. v. Miller, 538 U.S. 329, 123 S.Ct. 1471, 155 L.Ed.2d 468 (2003); UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America v. Ward, 526 U.S. 358, 363, 119 S.Ct. 1380, 1384, 143 L.Ed.2d 462 (1999), Palmore v. First Unum, 841 So.2d 233, 235 (Ala.2002). Our decision is not binding on a federal court. Tafflin v. Levitt, 493 U.S. 455, 465, 110 S.Ct. 792, 798, 107 L.Ed.2d 887 (1990).

. 20 O.S.2001, § 1602 provides: "Power to Answer. The Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals may answer a question of law certified to it by a court of the United States, or by an appellate court of another state, or of a federally recognized Indian tribal government, or of Canada, a Canadian province or territory, Mexico, or a Mexican state, if the answer may be determinative of an issue in pending litigation in the certifying court and there is no controlling decision of the Supreme Court or Court of Criminal Appeals, constitutional provision, or statute of this state.”