13‐4533 (L)
Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
August Term 2016
(Briefing Submitted: July 13, 2017 Decided: December 6, 2017)
Nos. 13‐4533, 13‐4537
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
EXPRESSIONS HAIR DESIGN, LINDA FIACCO, THE BROOKLYN FARMACY & SODA
FOUNTAIN, INC., PETER FREEMAN, BUNDA STARR CORP., DONNA PABST, FIVE POINTS
ACADEMY, STEVE MILLES, PATIO.COM LLC, DAVID ROSS,
Plaintiffs‐Appellees,
‐v.‐
ERIC T. SCHNEIDERMAN, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of
New York, CYRUS R. VANCE JR., in his official capacity as District Attorney of
New York County, ERIC GONZALEZ, in his official capacity as Acting District
Attorney of Kings County*,
Defendants‐Appellants.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Before: WESLEY, LIVINGSTON, AND CARNEY, Circuit Judges.
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c)(2), Acting District
*
Attorney Eric Gonzalez is automatically substituted for former District Attorney
Charles J. Hynes as defendant‐appellant in this case. The Clerk of Court is instructed to
amend the caption as set out above.
1
On remand from the Supreme Court, Expressions Hair Design v.
Schneiderman, 137 S. Ct. 1144 (2017), we certify the following question to the New
York Court of Appeals: “Does a merchant comply with New York’s General
Business Law § 518 so long as the merchant posts the total‐dollars‐and‐cents
price charged to credit card users?” In certifying this question, we understand
that the New York Court of Appeals may reformulate or expand the certified
question as it deems appropriate.
FOR DEFENDANTS‐APPELLANTS: Judith Vale, Senior Assistant Solicitor
General, Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor
General, Steven C. Wu, Deputy Solicitor
General, New York, NY, for Eric T.
Schneiderman, in his official capacity as
Attorney General of the State of New York.
Kathy Chang Park, for Zachary W. Carter,
Corporation Counsel of the City of New
York, New York, NY, for Cyrus R. Vance, in
his official capacity as District Attorney of
New York County, and Eric Gonzalez, in his
official capacity as Acting District Attorney
of Kings County.
Seth E. Mermin, Thomas Bennigson, Public
Good Law Center, Berkeley, CA, for amicus
curiae Public Good Law Center, in support
of Defendants‐Appellants.
FOR PLAINTIFFS‐APPELLEES: Deepak Gupta, Jonathan E. Taylor, Gupta
Wessler PLLC, Washington, DC, for
Plaintiffs‐Appellees.
Richard A. Samp, Washington Legal
Foundation, Washington, DC, for amicus
2
curiae Washington Legal Foundation, in
support of Plaintiffs‐Appellees.
Sharon K. Robertson, Cohen Milstein
Sellers & Toll PLLC, New York, NY, for
amici curiae United States Public Interest
Research Group Education Fund, Inc.,
Consumer Action, and National
Association of Consumer Advocates, in
support of Plaintiffs‐Appellees.
DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON, Circuit Judge:
On remand from the Supreme Court, we are tasked with determining
“whether [New York’s General Business Law §] 518 is a valid commercial speech
regulation under Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission
of New York, 447 U.S. 557 (1980), and whether the law can be upheld as a valid
disclosure requirement under Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of Supreme
Court of Ohio, 471 U.S. 626 (1985).” Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman
(Expressions II), 137 S. Ct. 1144, 1151 (2017). Finding aspects of the New York
statute at issue in this case unclear, and, further, that the resolution of these
ambiguities will determine the course of our constitutional analysis, we defer
decision and certify the following question to the New York Court of Appeals:
“Does a merchant comply with New York’s General Business Law § 518 so long
as the merchant posts the total‐dollars‐and‐cents price charged to credit card
3
users?” The New York Court of Appeals may reformulate or expand this
certified question as it deems appropriate.
BACKGROUND
We largely assume familiarity with the factual and procedural history
discussed extensively in our prior opinion in this case. See Expressions Hair
Design v. Schneiderman (Expressions I), 808 F.3d 118 (2d Cir. 2015). We recount
this history, and the case’s subsequent procedural history, only as necessary to
explain our decision to certify.
In Expressions I, we considered the plaintiffs’ First Amendment challenge
to New York’s General Business Law § 518 (“Section 518”). That provision, the
scope and application of which, as we explain below, is directly at issue in this
iteration of the case, reads, in its entirety, as follows:
No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a
holder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash,
check, or similar means.
Any seller who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed five hundred
dollars or a term of imprisonment up to one year, or both.
We observed then that the plaintiffs’ papers appeared to raise two facially
distinct challenges to Section 518. “First, [certain of the plaintiffs] aver[red] that
4
they would like to post only a single price for their goods and services and
charge more than that price to credit‐card customers, but are prohibited from
doing so by Section 518.” Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 128. In other words, these
plaintiffs claimed, they would like to advertise or mark their products at one
price, displaying the credit card surcharge to be imposed — either as a
percentage of the base price or as a dollar amount — alongside that single price.
For instance, a merchant might post a price of $10 for an item, but note “with
roughly equal prominence” either that a surcharge of thirty cents, or,
alternatively, that a three‐percent surcharge would be imposed on credit card
users. See Joint App’x 140. We termed this proposed pricing approach a
“single‐sticker‐price scheme,” and explained that a pricing scheme of this sort
was “clearly prohibit[ed]” by Section 518. Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 129.1
Second, one of the plaintiffs sought First Amendment protection for a
“dual‐price scheme,” under which a seller posts “two different prices for its
services[,] one for credit‐card customers and one for cash customers.” Id.
1 By “single‐sticker‐price scheme,” we referred to—and continue to refer to—a
scheme in which the advertised “sticker price” is the cash price. If a merchant were to
employ a scheme in which the advertised “sticker price” were the credit card price (e.g.,
“$10.25, with a .25 cent discount for paying with cash”), that scheme would be
permissible under the interpretation of Section 518 we outlined in Expressions I. See
Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 128 (“[I]f the seller’s regular price is $103, it may charge
credit‐card customers $103 and cash customers $100.”).
5
Though we thought it far from clear that Section 518 would bar a seller’s use of
such a scheme, see id. at 139, the plaintiff suggested that it “fear[ed] . . .
prosecut[ion] for characterizing this [posted] price differential as a ‘surcharge’ or
for telling its customers that credit costs ‘more,’” id. at 129.
Following our decision in Expressions I, in which we (1) rejected the
plaintiffs’ as‐applied First Amendment challenge to the single‐sticker pricing
scheme on the grounds that Section 518, applied in that context, regulated
conduct and not speech, id. at 130–35, and (2) declined, on Pullman abstention
grounds, to reach the question whether Section 518, if ever applied to the
proposed dual‐pricing scheme, would withstand a challenge under the First
Amendment, id. at 137–41, the plaintiffs petitioned for certiorari. The Supreme
Court granted that petition, and, after argument, vacated and remanded.
Narrowing the scope of their challenge on certiorari, the plaintiffs
specifically focused on the proposed single‐sticker pricing scheme. See
Expressions II, 137 S. Ct. at 1149 & n.1; see also id. at n.4. Analyzing that scheme,
the Supreme Court agreed with our assessment “that [Section] 518 regulates a
relationship between a sticker price and the price charged to credit card users.”
Id. at 1151. However, the Supreme Court explained, because the statute, as we
6
understood it, primarily operates by regulating the way sellers communicate
their prices, rather than by regulating merchants’ prices themselves, Section 518
must still be analyzed as a speech regulation under the First Amendment. Id.
Having determined that Section 518 should be analyzed under the First
Amendment doctrines governing state regulation of commercial speech, the
Supreme Court then remanded this case for us to determine “whether [Section]
518 is a valid commercial speech regulation under Central Hudson Gas & Electric
Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York, 447 U.S. 557 (1980), and whether
the law can be upheld as a valid disclosure requirement under Zauderer v. Office
of Disciplinary Counsel of Supreme Court of Ohio, 471 U.S. 626 (1985).” Id.
DISCUSSION
I
Taking up the task before us on remand, we find it necessary to first certify
to the New York Court of Appeals a question of state law, the answer to which
will directly shape our First Amendment analysis. Not only do the First
Amendment issues in this case not, to our mind, admit of easy answers, but,
more importantly, these issues cannot be addressed without initially considering
how Section 518’s restrictions operate in practice.
7
We have previously noted our uncertainty about how widely Section 518’s
restrictions sweep. See Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 137 (noting that the “primary
problem” with the plaintiffs’ First Amendment challenges is that “it is far from
clear that Section 518 prohibits the relevant conduct in the first place”). As we
explain below, resolution of at least some of this uncertainty will clear the path
for our First Amendment analysis. Thus, before definitively addressing the
questions the Supreme Court has asked us to resolve — namely, whether Section
518, as applied to the single‐price scheme, is either a valid regulation of
commercial speech under Central Hudson or a permissible disclosure rule under
Zauderer — we seek the benefit of the New York Court of Appeals’ views with
respect to certain aspects of Section 518’s operation.
Specifically, we certify to the New York Court of Appeals the question
whether a merchant complies with Section 518 so long as the merchant posts the
total dollars‐and‐cents price charged to credit card users. Section 518’s
prohibition — which, by its terms, governs whenever a seller “impose[s] a
surcharge on a holder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash,
check, or similar means” — has never been understood to bar differential pricing
8
schemes in their entirety.2 See Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 123–26. The State does
not appear to have ever contended, for instance, that Section 518 bars sellers from
offering discounts on their advertised prices to consumers willing to pay in cash.
If we are correct in assuming that Section 518 permits a merchant to use certain
differential pricing schemes even as it bars the use of others, the First
Amendment questions in this case necessarily center on the relationship between
the pricing approach we took to be barred by Section 518 (the single‐sticker
scheme) and potential alternative methods for disclosing and implementing
pricing schemes that differentiate between credit‐card and cash payment.
Take, for example, the question whether Section 518 “can be upheld as a
valid disclosure requirement under Zauderer.” Expressions II, 137 S. Ct. at 1151.
Following the path laid down by the Supreme Court’s decision in Zauderer, our
precedent holds that we apply a more lenient standard of review when
adjudicating a First Amendment challenge to a law that forces a commercial
entity to make “purely factual and uncontroversial” disclosures regarding the
2 Of course, nothing we say with respect to the interpretation of Section 518
binds the New York Court of Appeals, which may choose to address aspects of Section
518’s operation in practice that we do not discuss here. See Johnson v. Fankell, 520 U.S.
911, 916 (1997) (“Neither th[e Supreme] Court nor any other federal tribunal has any
authority to place a construction on a state statute different from the one rendered by
the highest court of the State.”).
9
product it is offering for sale. N.Y. State Rest. Ass’n v. N.Y.C. Bd. of Health
(“NYSRA”), 556 F.3d 114, 132 (2d Cir. 2009) (quoting Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651).
More specifically, we have held that Zauderer’s less‐exacting standard applies
whenever a law mandates that a merchant disclose specific facts relating to a
product it is offering for sale, and, further, that this standard is applicable even
where the merchant is otherwise willing to disclose the information at issue, but
prefers to do so in a manner different than the one the law requires. See
NYSRA, 556 F.3d at 121–22 (describing both New York City’s calorie disclosure
rules and the restaurant association’s suggested alternatives).
Under this precedent, Section 518 could potentially be understood, from a
First Amendment perspective, to do nothing but compel the truthful disclosure
of an item’s credit‐card price. For, even as Section 518 prohibits single‐sticker
pricing — in which a merchant does not directly disclose the price it charges to
credit card users — it might also, understood correctly, permit merchants to post
the cash price alongside the credit card price, using something like the dual‐price
scheme described above.3 If this is so — and though we express no view on the
Though nowhere near dispositive of the interpretation of New York’s Section
3
518, we note that a California appellate court has interpreted its structurally similar law
to permit merchants to use the dual‐price scheme. See Thrifty Oil Co. v. Super. Ct., 111
Cal. Rptr. 2d 253, 258–59 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001) (interpreting Cal. Civ. Code § 1748.1).
10
question here — the practical legal effect of Section 518 might be to compel
merchants to disclose an item’s credit card price, and Zauderer might then
provide the appropriate framework for analyzing any resulting First
Amendment claims.
More fundamentally, because the question whether to apply Central
Hudson’s test or Zauderer’s turns in part on a functional analysis of Section 518,
the First Amendment inquiry in this case properly begins by accounting for the
way the statute operates in practice. Despite the general rationale it offered in
Zauderer for the lesser standard of review it articulated in that case, the Supreme
Court has never clearly specified a governing framework that determines when
Zauderer’s less‐exacting standard should apply instead of Central Hudson’s
intermediate scrutiny. See Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 650 (explaining only that there
are “material differences between disclosure requirements and outright
prohibitions on speech”). However, the Supreme Court has suggested that, at a
minimum, Zauderer supplies the governing standard when evaluating the
constitutionality of a law (1) designed to address misleading commercial speech
(or, presumably, its equivalent, the non‐disclosure of information material to the
consumer), (2) which mandates only that the merchant make certain truthful
11
statements, and (3) which does not prevent the merchant from conveying
additional truthful information. See Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. v. United
States, 559 U.S. 229, 250 (2010) (distinguishing Zauderer from In re R.M.J., 455 U.S.
191 (1982), where the Court applied Central Hudson).
We see no obvious way to conduct the functional analysis this view of the
Central Hudson/Zauderer distinction requires without first gaining greater clarity
about the correct application of Section 518 under New York law. Here, of
course, the State argues that Section 518 is designed to address the possibility
that consumers will be misled if a merchant does not clearly disclose, at the
outset, the price it charges to credit card users. As a result, the scope of Section
518’s prohibition is crucial to our analysis in this case. If Section 518 forces a
merchant to disclose an item’s credit‐card price, without otherwise either barring
the merchant from (a) implementing (and describing to customers) a pricing
scheme that differentiates between payments by credit card and cash or (b)
conveying to its customers other information the merchant finds relevant, then
Zauderer might apply. However, if the statutory prohibition sweeps much more
broadly, then Central Hudson might apply. At the very least, without some
clarification of Section 518’s scope from the Court of Appeals, and in the absence
12
of some other way to identify the actual scope of Section 518’s rule, it is not clear
that we can even decide the basic question of which standard of review —
Central Hudson or Zauderer — properly applies.4
The plaintiffs resist the suggestion that Zauderer could apply here for two
reasons. First, they argue that since Section 518 is framed as a prohibition, it
cannot be the case that Zauderer applies. But, as the plaintiffs themselves
recognize, the Supreme Court was cognizant of the structure of Section 518 and
yet asked us to examine whether the law passed muster under Zauderer. See
Expressions II, 137 S. Ct. at 1151–52. At the very least, this mandate suggests that
a viable argument exists that, irrespective of its framing, Section 518 might
survive scrutiny under Zauderer.
4 While it is true that, if Section 518’s design was somewhat clearer, we could, if
the same result would obtain, apply both the Central Hudson and Zauderer tests without
resolving the question of which test properly applies, we decline to attempt that project
at this stage of the case. As an initial matter, it is far from clear that the same result
would obtain. Moreover, given the uncertainty surrounding how Section 518 applies, a
full evaluation of its constitutionality, even as‐applied to the single‐sticker context,
would rest on pure speculation about how the statute operates, and hence would not be
much better than an analysis of Section 518’s facial constitutionality — a challenge
plaintiffs have disclaimed. See Wash. State Grange v. Wash. State Republican Party, 552
U.S. 442, 450 (2008) (explaining that one feature of facial challenges is that they “often
rest on speculation . . . [and so] raise the risk of premature interpretation of statutes on
the basis of factually barebones records” (internal quotation marks omitted)).
13
Second, the plaintiffs argue that because the text of Section 518 does not
identify with precision, or “clarity,” the type of disclosure it requires, the law
cannot survive as a disclosure rule even under Zauderer. Expressions Br. at 14.
But, even without disposing of this argument on the merits, it is worth noting
that it is essentially a version of the plaintiffs’ earlier vagueness argument, which
was specifically rejected by the Supreme Court. See Expressions II, 137 S. Ct. at
1151–52. Moreover, the plaintiffs cite no authority for the proposition that
Zauderer’s test imports a “clarity” requirement, and it is at least subject to
question whether such a requirement would make sense in light of the
more‐abstract materiality standards that form the heart of many disclosure
regimes. See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. § 77j(b) (requiring disclosures in a prospectus
related to the issuance of a security); id. § 77k(a) (requiring disclosures in a
registration statement related to the issuance of a security); see also Hutchison v.
Deutsche Bank Sec. Inc., 647 F.3d 479, 488 (2d Cir. 2011) (“If a particular product or
product line, or division or segment of a company’s business, has independent
significance for investors, then even a matter material to less than all of the
company’s business may be material for purposes of the securities laws.”).
14
In any case, even though we are inclined to reject the plaintiffs’ suggestion
that Zauderer cannot apply on any reading of Section 518, the Court of Appeals’
answer to the question we certify today will be helpful even if Central Hudson is
controlling. After all, one of the components of the Central Hudson analysis
looks at whether a law restricting commercial speech preserves “alternative
channels” for the speech at issue. See 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S.
484, 502 (1996) (opinion of Stevens, J., joined by Kennedy and Ginsburg, JJ.); id. at
529–30 (O’Connor, J., joined by Rehnquist, C.J., and Souter and Breyer, JJ.,
concurring in the judgment); Fla. Bar v. Went for It, Inc., 515 U.S. 618, 633–34
(1995). Thus, if Section 518 restricts certain forms of speech that the State deems
particularly deceptive (e.g., failing to post the credit card price), but preserves
alternative ways for merchants to communicate the same message (e.g., that
consumers will pay less when they pay in cash), that fact would be material to
the Central Hudson analysis. Moreover, there is a cognizable argument that,
even under a Central Hudson analysis, a focused rule that effectively mandates
only that a merchant disclose certain facts to consumers trenches less heavily on
First Amendment interests. See Milavetz, 559 U.S. at 256 n.1 (Thomas, J.,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment).
15
As a result, it is clear to us that securing the Court of Appeals’ views on the
question whether a merchant complies with Section 518 so long as, when posting
prices, the merchant discloses the total dollars‐and‐cents price charged to credit
card users will materially assist — and will in fact determine the course of — our
First Amendment analysis.
II
Under New York state law, and our local rules, we may certify to the New
York Court of Appeals “determinative questions of New York law . . . involved
in a case pending before [our] court for which no controlling precedent of the
Court of Appeals exists.” N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 22, § 500.27(a); see
also Second Circuit Local Rule 27.2(a). Before certifying, we must answer three
questions: “(1) whether the New York Court of Appeals has addressed the issue
and, if not, whether the decisions of other New York courts permit us to predict
how the Court of Appeals would resolve it; (2) whether the question is of
importance to the state and may require value judgments and public policy
choices; and (3) whether the certified question is determinative of a claim before
us.” Osterweil v. Bartlett, 706 F.3d 139, 142 (2d Cir. 2013) (quoting Barenboim v.
Starbucks Corp., 698 F.3d 104, 109 (2d Cir. 2012)).
16
As we have previously observed, there is a dearth of case law interpreting
Section 518. Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 125 (“[T]here are almost no reported cases
involving Section 518’s application.”). The Court of Appeals has never
addressed the sweep of the rule laid down in Section 518, and there are no
decisions of New York appellate courts (or, for that matter, any substantial
judicial authority) that would allow us to fairly predict what interpretation the
Court of Appeals might offer. Specifically, outside our own assessment that
Section 518 bars single‐sticker pricing, there is no judicial authority that would
indicate to us whether Section 518’s bar is: (1) designed to force disclosure of an
item’s credit‐card price (and, if so, how), (2) alternatively, whether the law is
designed to sweep much more broadly, or, (3) at the other extreme, whether it
bars single‐sticker pricing at all.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that certification is the appropriate
course . . . even, and perhaps especially, when important federal rights are at
stake.” Osterweil, 706 F.3d at 144. More directly, the Supreme Court has
“warned against premature adjudication of constitutional questions when a
federal court is asked to invalidate a State’s law, for the federal tribunal risks
friction‐generating error when it endeavors to construe a novel state Act not yet
17
reviewed by the State’s highest court.” Id. (quoting Arizonans for Official English
v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 79 (1997)) (internal notations omitted). That is exactly
the case here: the plaintiffs ask us to hold that Section 518 violates the First
Amendment as applied to them despite the fact that Section 518 has never been
definitively interpreted by the Court of Appeals. It is specifically because the
First Amendment interests potentially at stake are serious enough, and the legal
framework surrounding Section 518 uncertain enough, that certification is
warranted. While “[t]he prospect of disagreement over the seriousness of a
constitutional question is always present when a federal court certifies . . . this
has always led the Supreme Court to counsel in favor of certification, not against
it.” Id. “The presence of a serious constitutional question is a good reason to
certify . . . not a reason to race ahead.” Id.
Of course, the last time this case was before us and we were confronted
with sweeping questions about the scope of Section 518, we preferred Pullman
abstention to certification. Expressions I, 808 F.3d at 140–41. But that decision,
as we explained, was informed by the scope of the plaintiffs’ challenge and the
resulting likelihood that certification would not materially advance the litigation.
Id. at 141. At this point, however, the plaintiffs have focused on a single
18
as‐applied challenge to Section 518 — whether Section 518, as applied to their
proposed single‐sticker scheme, is constitutional under the First Amendment —
and hence certification has substantial benefits to recommend it.
Certification “allows a federal court faced with a novel state‐law question
to put the question directly to the State’s highest court, reducing the delay,
cutting the cost, and increasing the assurance of gaining an authoritative
response.” Osterweil, 706 F.3d at 145 (quoting Arizonans for Official English, 520
U.S. at 76). Though the Supreme Court did not require us to certify on remand,
we do so here precisely because the Court of Appeals’ views on the scope of
Section 518 will lay the groundwork for the careful analysis of the First
Amendment issues in this case that the Supreme Court’s mandate requires. As
Justice Breyer observed in his Expressions II concurrence, certification “may well
be helpful . . . [in] clarify[ing] the nature of the obligations the statute imposes”
and so Section 518’s constitutional implications. See Expressions II, 137 S. Ct. at
1153 (Breyer, J., concurring in the judgment); see also id. at 1159 (Sotomayor, J.,
concurring in the judgment) (“The Court’s opinion does not foreclose the Second
Circuit from choosing [the certification] route on remand.”).5
5 See also Expressions II, 137 S. Ct. at 1151 n.3 (“To assess [Section 518’s]
constitutionality, the [Second Circuit] may need to consider a question we need not
19
Put succinctly, the answer we receive from the Court of Appeals in this
case will, at a minimum, “materially change the nature of the [constitutional]
problem” presented. Osterweil, 706 F.3d at 143 (quoting Bellotti v. Baird, 428 U.S.
132, 147 (1976)). More, the answer we receive will determine the proper
framework for our constitutional analysis. See In re World Trade Ctr. Lower
Manhattan Disaster Site Litig., 846 F.3d 58, 70 (2d Cir. 2017). As a result, we find
certification appropriate.
In light of these considerations, and pursuant to Second Circuit Local
Rule 27.2(a) and N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 22, § 500.27(a), we CERTIFY
the following question to the New York Court of Appeals:
Does a merchant comply with New York’s General Business Law
§ 518 so long as the merchant posts the total‐dollars‐and‐cents price
charged to credit card users?
In certifying this question, we understand that the New York Court of
Appeals may reformulate or expand the certified question as it deems
appropriate.
answer here: whether the statute permits two‐sticker pricing schemes like the one
petitioner Expressions currently uses . . . .”).
20
CONCLUSION
It is hereby ORDERED that the Clerk of this Court transmit to the Clerk of
the New York Court of Appeals this opinion as our certification, together with a
complete set of the briefs and the record filed in this Court both prior to the grant
of certiorari and following remand. The parties shall equally bear any fees and
costs that may be imposed by the New York Court of Appeals in connection with
this certification. This panel retains jurisdiction to decide the case once we have
had the benefit of the views of the New York Court of Appeals or once that court
declines to accept certification.
21