Mike Shecket's Notes on Yeazell's Civil Procedure[1]

 

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I.                   AN OVERVIEW OF PROCEDURE

 

PART A

THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR U.S. LITIGATIONS

 

II.                PERSONAL JURISDICTION

A.   The Origins (including Pennoyer v. Neff)

B.    The Modern Constitutional Formulation of Power (including Shoe v. Washington, Shaffer, McGee, Hanson, World-Wide, Asahi, Burger King etc.)

C.   Consent as a Substitute for Power

D.   The Constitutional Requirement of Notice

E.    Self-Imposed Restraints on Jurisdictional Power: Long-Arm Statutes, Venue, and Discretionary Refusal of Jurisdiction

III.             SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OF THE FEDERAL COURTS

A.   The Idea and the Structure of Subject Matter Jurisdiction

B.    Federal Question Jurisdiction (including Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Mottley)

C.   Diversity Jurisdiction

D.   Supplemental Jurisdiction (including United Mine Workers v. Gibbs)

E.    Removal (including Caterpillar, Inc. v. Lewis)

IV.            THE ERIE PROBLEM

A.   State Courts as Lawmakers in a Federal System

1.     The Issue in Historical Context

2.     Constitutionalizing the Issue (including Erie Railroad v. Tompkins)

B.    The Limits of State Power in Federal Courts

1.     Interpreting the Constitutional Command of Erie

2.     De-Constitutionalizing Erie (including Hanna v. Plumer)

3.     Determining the Scope of Federal Law: Avoiding and Accommodating Erie

4.     Determining the Scope of State Law: An Entailment of Erie

 

PART B

THE PROCESS OF LITIGATION

 

A.   Approaching Civil Procedure

B.    Choosing Procedure

C.   A Roadmap for Exploring Choices

V.               INCENTIVES TO LITIGATE

A.   Litigation in the United States at the End of the Twentieth Century

1.     How Much Litigation?

2.     Why Litigate?

B.    Substitutionary Remedies

1.     Compensatory Damages (including United States v. Hatahley)

2.     Liquidated, Statutory, and Punitive Damages

C.   Specific Remedies

1.     The Idea of Specific Relief

2.     An Excursus on Equity and Specific Relief

3.     Is There a Remedial Hierarchy?

D.   Declaratory Relief

E.    Financing Litigation

1.     The “American” Rule

2.     Insurance and the Contingent Fee

3.     Public Subsidies and Professional Charity

4.     From Fee Spreading to Fee Shifting

a.        The Common Fund

b.       By Contract

c.        By Common Law

d.       By Statute

5.     Fee Shifting and Settlement

a.        Rule 68

b.       Separating Lawyer and Client

F.    Provisional Remedies

1.     Preliminary Injunctions and Temporary Restraining Orders: The Basic Problem (including William Inglis & Sons Baking Co. v. ITT Continental Baking Co.)

2.     Provisional Remedies and Due Process (including Fuentes v. Shevin)

VI.            PLEADING

VII.         DISCOVERY

VIII.      RESOLUTION WITHOUT TRIAL

IX.            IDENTIFYING THE TRIER

X.               TRIAL

XI.            APPEAL

XII.         RESPECT FOR JUDGMENTS

A.   Claim Preclusion

B.    Issue Preclusion

1.     The Same Issue

2.     An Issue “Actually Litigated and Determined” (including Illinois Central Gulf Railroad v. Parks)

3.     An Issue “Essential to the Judgment”

4.     Between Which Parties?

C.   The Boundaries of Preclusion

1.     Claim Preclusion

2.     Issue Preclusion

3.     The Law of the Case and “Judicial Estoppel”

D.   Repose: Collateral Attack and Reopened Judgments

1.     Full Faith and Credit as a Bar to Collateral Attack

2.     The Reopened Judgment as an Alternative to Collateral Attack

 

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[1] Yeazell, Stephen C.  Civil Procedure.  5th ed.  Aspen Law & Business, 2000.