The Supreme Court today agreed to answer another question of California law for the Ninth Circuit. In De La Torre v. CashCall, Inc., the federal appeals court wants to know the Supreme Court’s take on the issue “whether the interest rates on consumer loans of $2500 or more that are governed by California Finance Code § 22303, which provides no interest rate limitations on such loans, can be deemed unconscionable under California Finance Code § 22302 and thus be the predicate for a private cause of action under the California Unfair Competition Law (‘UCL’).” The Ninth Circuit case is a class action alleging consumer loans with interest rates of 90 percent or higher.
Today’s grant of the Ninth Circuit’s request is consistent with the Supreme Court’s commitment to comity. Over the last five years, it has turned down federal appellate courts just once in the last 18 requests, and even then it wasn’t really a denial.
