304
Yeazell,
pp. 265-270
Facts: Tompkins got his arm lopped
off in a train accident. He sued the
railroad in the Southern District of New York to try to take advantage of the
rule of Swift v. Tyson, which said that federal court didn’t have to use
state common law to decide cases.
Procedural
Posture: Tompkins
won at trial and the railroad appealed to the Second Circuit, arguing that
Issue: Can federal courts ignore
state law when deciding diversity cases?
Rule: NEW RULE!!! Federal courts must follow and apply both state
statutes and state case law in deciding cases unless the case is
governed by federal statutes or the United States Constitution.
Analysis: Brandeis and the Court
attack Swift on several fronts:
1. Swift relied on a bogus
interpretation of the Rules of Decision Act, as proven by Chuck Warren.
2. Swift has had disastrously unfair
results in practice.
3. Swift is unconstitutional because
it usurps part of the power that the Constitution left to the states to make
their own laws (statutes and case law).
Conclusion: Swift is
overturned. The present case is remanded
to the Second Circuit for them to determine how