Alito Recusal Lifted, Will Participate in Case Involving Boeing

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will now participate in an arbitration case involving Boeing Co., a company in which he or his family members once owned stock.

The court announced Aug. 23 that the justice was no longer recused from Servotronics, Inc. v. Rolls-Royce PLC., which is to be argued Oct. 5.

The one sentence notation didn’t explain why Alito, who had previously sat out proceedings in the case, was now able to participate. The court also didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

But Alito in 2019 sold shares in Oracle Corp. to allow him to hear a multibillion-dollar copyright dispute with Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

And his 2019 financial disclosures, the latest available for the justice, show he or family members owned as much as $50,000 in Boeing stock, which is a party in the arbitration case.

The case stems from a 2016 engine fire at a Boeing testing facility in South Carolina. The fire resulted in a $12 million settlement between Boeing and Rolls-Royce, which manufactured the engine that caught fire.

The current arbitration dispute involves Rolls-Royce’s attempt to recoup that money from Servotronics, which manufactured some of the engine’s components.

The case is Servotronics, Inc. v. Rolls-Royce PLC, U.S., No. 20-794.