Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938) was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held that federal courts did not have the power to make up general federal common law when hearing state law claims under diversity jurisdiction. In reaching this holding, the Court overturned almost a century of federal civil procedure law, and established what remains the modern law of diversity jurisdiction for United States federal courts. The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation of the general and permanent federal Law of the United States. ... Court citation is a standard system used in common law countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters. ... 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States to interpret and decide questions of federal law, including... A United States federal courts are the system of courts organized under the Constitution and laws of the federal government of the United States. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... Civil procedure is the written set of rules that sets out the process that courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a civil action). These rules explain how a lawsuit must be commenced, what kind of service of process is required, the types of pleadings, motions, and... A United States federal courts are the system of courts organized under the Constitution and laws of the federal government of the United States. ...

Factual and procedural background

Erie began as a simple personal injury case. As explained by the 2nd Circuit in its decision below, Harry Tompkins was walking next to the Erie Railroad's tracks in Hughestown, Pennsylvania, at 2:30 a.m. on July 27, 1934. A friend of Tompkins had driven him to within a few blocks of his home, which was located on a dead-end street near the tracks. Tompkins chose to walk the remaining distance on a narrow but well-worn footpath adjacent to the tracks. A train approached, and in the darkness an object protruding from one of the cars suddenly struck Tompkins. When he fell down, his right arm was crushed beneath the wheels of the train. The Erie Railroad (AAR reporting mark ERIE) was a railroad that operated in New York State, connecting New York City with Lake Erie and several cities in upstate New York, including Binghamton, Buffalo and Dunkirk. ... Railroad or railway tracks are used on railways, which, together with railroad switches (points), guide trains without the need for steering. ... Hughestown is a borough located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. ... 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about trains in rail transport. ...

The train was owned by the Erie Railroad company, a New York corporation. Tompkins sued this railroad company in a federal district court - the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The district court, following the federal law at that time, applied neither New York nor Pennsylvania common law, but instead applied federal common law, which used an ‘ordinary negligence’ standard for the duty of care owed to persons walking along railroad tracks, instead of Pennsylvania ’s common law ‘wanton negligence’ standard for the duty of care to trespassers. The case was tried to a jury which was instructed in accordance with this negligence standard, and which awarded damages. The railroad appealed to the 2nd Circuit, which affirmed. The railroad then petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari. The Erie Railroad (AAR reporting mark ERIE) was a railroad that operated in New York State, connecting New York City with Lake Erie and several cities in upstate New York, including Binghamton, Buffalo and Dunkirk. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. ... The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is comprised of the following counties: New York, Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. ... This article is confusing for some readers, and needs to be edited for clarity. ... Damages, in law has two different meanings. ... In English Law certiorari (Latin, to inform) is a public law relief (i. ...

Issue

It had long been settled that when a federal court hears a state cause of action brought in diversity, the statutory law of the state would be applied. However, in the case of Swift v. Tyson, 41 U.S. 1 (1842), the Supreme Court had held that the federal courts were not to also apply the court-made common law of the states. This had led to forum shopping, where plaintiffs would seek to sue in federal court instead of state court in order to have a different substantive law applied. In light of this inequity, the Supreme Court had to determine whether federal courts should apply state common law. Court citation is a standard system used in common law countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...

Result

The Court, in an opinion by Associate Justice Brandeis, examined the manipulations that had resulted from the rule of Swift v. Tyson and determined that "in attempting to promote uniformity of law throughout the United States, the doctrine had prevented uniformity in the administration of the law of the state." This had the effect of denying litigants equal protection of the law. Louis D. Brandeis Louis Dembitz Brandeis (November 13, 1856 - October 3, 1941) was an important American litigator, Justice, advocate of privacy, and developer of the Brandeis Brief. ...

In Swift, Justice Joseph Story had sought to interpret the Rules of Decision Act. This Act, which began as Section 34 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, is now codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1652 (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=28&sec=1652) and is as follows: American jurist Joseph Story Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 - September 10, 1845), American jurist, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation of the general and permanent federal Law of the United States. ...

The laws of the several States, except where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United States otherwise require or provide, shall be regarded as rules of decision in trials at common law, in the courts of the United States, in cases where they apply.

Story interpreted the words "laws of the several States" narrowly, treating them as referring to only the statutory law of states and not the judge-made law declared by state supreme courts. Thus, where the state legislature had not passed a statute that controlled the case, a federal district court was free to make up its own common law. In the United States, the state supreme court (known as the supreme judicial court in some states) is usually the highest court in the state court system. ... A statute is a formal, written law of a country or state, written and enacted by its legislative authority, perhaps to then be ratified by the highest executive in the government, and finally published. ...

Story apparently hoped that when hearing state law claims in diversity jurisdiction, federal district courts would fashion a uniform "general law." As interstate commerce continued to increase, the common law of the states would converge with such general federal common law because states would recognize it was in their own best interest. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution empowers the United States Congress To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes. The Commerce Clause has been the subject of intense constitutional and political disagreement centering on the extent to...

By 1938, as Brandeis acknowledged, "the mischievous results of the doctrine had become apparent." The problem with Swift was that rather than reducing forum shopping, it had only increased it. State judge-made law continued to diverge instead of converge. Allowing federal courts to make up their own independent judge-made law only made the problem worse. Parties who felt disadvantaged by a state judge-made rule could create diversity jurisdiction in the federal courts by simply moving to another state or reincorporating there (if a party was a corporation). In the worst cases a party who had lost in the state supreme court would simply begin all over again in the federal courts; since the federal district court had its own set of common law rules, it could hold that it was not bound by the state supreme court ruling. A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... In the United States, the state supreme court (known as the supreme judicial court in some states) is usually the highest court in the state court system. ...

The facts of Erie itself were an example of the kind of clever forum shopping which the Court wished to bring an end to. Pennsylvania clearly had personal jurisdiction over the railroad because of its operations there; also, the accident happened there, and Tompkins was a Pennsylvania resident. But Tompkins chose to sue in a New York federal court to take advantage of its favorable rule — knowing that he would lose under Pennsylvania's rule. Personal jurisdiction, jurisdiction of (or over) the person, or jurisdiction in personam is the power of a court to require a party (usually the defendant) or a witness to come before the court. ...

Therefore, the Court felt it was time to overrule the doctrine of Swift as an unconstitutional extension of its own powers. Swift had stolen powers reserved to the states in violation of the Eleventh Amendment - nothing in the Constitution of the United States permits the U.S. Congress to empower federal courts to create their own common law - and had denied state residents the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment . Therefore, the federal court was required to apply the law of whichever state it was sitting in, as though it were a state court of that state. Of course, this was a very difficult decision for the Court because overruling Swift meant that a huge number of opinions by the lower federal courts were no longer valid law. Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America and is... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...

However, the Court did not declare that the Rules of Decision Act itself was unconstitutional. Instead, it reinterpreted the Act so that federal district courts hearing cases in diversity jurisdiction had to apply the entire law, both statutory and judge-made, of the states in which they sit.

Concurrence

Associate Justice Stanley Reed filed a concurrence in which he agreed that Swift had to be reversed, but argued that Swift was merely an erroneous interpretation of the Rules of Decision Act, not an unconstitutional one.

Dissent

Associate Justice Pierce Butler filed a dissent, joined by Associate Justice James McReynolds, in which he argued that the majority had engaged in judicial activism. The majority had completely rewritten the two questions presented in the petition for certiorari as a constitutional question, when there really was no constitutional issue. He pointed out that no one in this case had directly challenged the Swift regime, which the Court had adhered to for so long in so many cases. This is an article about the Founding Father. ... The phrases judicial activism and activist judges in the United States, Australia, Canada and other countries with common law systems, are politically charged terms with negative connotations refering to judges who use the power of judicial review to overturn laws or articulate new legal principles. ...

Subsequent history

Later developments in the case

The case was remanded to the 2nd Circuit for a ruling on the merits of Pennsylvania law. Rather than applying New York law, the Court of Appeals applied the law of Pennsylvania as required by the choice-of-law rules of the time — under which the law of the place of the accident was determinative — and threw out Tompkins' case. Choice of law is a concept within the field of the conflict of laws, relating to relationships between different nations, and in the United States between individual states. ...

Later developments in the doctrine

Later opinions limited the application of Erie to substantive state law; federal courts can generally use the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure while hearing state law claims. If it is not clear how the state supreme court would deal with a state law claim, federal courts can certify questions to a state supreme court, so long as the state itself has a procedure in place to allow this. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) govern civil procedure in the United States district courts, or more simply, court procedures for civil suits. ...

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court Cases

This is a chronological list of notable cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. ...

External links

• Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com (http://laws.findlaw.com/us/304/64.html)