WASHINGTON — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expected to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court today, asking the court to consider whether a landmark gender-discrimination lawsuit should be granted class-action status.
The retailer’s extension in order to file an appeal with the high court, which was granted by Justice Anthony Kennedy, expires today.
Wal-Mart’s expected appeal would contest a sharply divided decision handed down by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in April, allowing a gender-discrimination complaint to go to trial as a class-action lawsuit. The federal appeals court’s 6 to 5 ruling affirmed a lower court’s class-action certification and also allowed members to seek back pay as well as injunctive and declaratory relief.
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The key legal question Wal-Mart is expected to ask the high court to consider is whether the case should be certified a class action. Wal-Mart is seeking to have the trial court’s certification overturned.
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The question of whether Wal-Mart is guilty of discrimination — an allegation the retailer denies — would not be before the Supreme Court, if it agrees to hear the case.
Wal-Mart’s appeal before the Supreme Court stems from a labor suit originally brought by employee Betty Dukes and five other plaintiffs in 2001, alleging the company’s corporate structure discriminated against women on a pay and promotion basis, among other accusations.
In 2004, the U.S. District Court for Northern California conferred class-action status in the case to female employees who worked at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. since 1998. Wal-Mart appealed to the federal appeals court in San Francisco, which affirmed the class-action status of the case, but effectively reduced the size of the class.