Justices to Review Halliburton Worker’s Voluntarily Dropped Suit

The US Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a Halliburton Energy Services Inc. employee’s argument that he should’ve been allowed to reopen his age bias lawsuit following arbitration because he’d dismissed the suit voluntarily.

Voluntary dismissals under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are final judgments and a divided US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit missed the mark in holding otherwise in his case, the worker said in his petition seeking the justices’ review. The appellate panel’s ruling created uncertainty in how Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) interacts with Rule 60(b), under which federal trial courts can ...