The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday asked New York’s highest court to decide whether a previous ruling from a state small claims court barred a woman from suing her former employer for unpaid wages.

The certified question, crafted by a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based federal appeals court, invited the New York Court of Appeals to rule, for the first time, on whether a provision of the New York City Civil Court Act bars subsequent federal lawsuits under the principle of claim preclusion.