Civ. Pro Cases – Flashcards
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Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore
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Shore sued Parklane after the SEC had already sued for misrepresentation; litigant who was not a party to a prior judgment may nonetheless use that judgment offensively to prevent a defendant from relitigating issues resolved in the earlier proceeding, provided that (1) the plaintiff could not easily have joined in the earlier action and (2) use of the judgment will not result in unfairness to the defendant.
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Illinois Central Gulf Railroad v. Parks
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Husband and wife hit by train. Husband sued for consortium, then sued for his injuries; Issue preclusion allows the judgment in the prior action to operate as an estoppel as to those facts or questions actually litigated and determined in the prior action.
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Taylor v. Sturgell
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Antique aircraftman wanted specs and didnt get them. Another antique aircraftsman tried again asking for pretty much the same thing; A claim cannot be precluded if the previous litigant is a different party and there is no legal relationship between the current and past litigants.
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Frier v. City of Vandalia
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Man kept parking his cars in the middle of the road. Sued in both state and Federal Court. Claim preclusion operates to bar a cause of action where the second cause of action is based upon a common core of operative facts with the first.
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Harnden v. Jayco, Inc.
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Expert accidentally files form the wrong way; If evidence is admitted in error but its admission does not affect any party's substantial rights, the admission is harmless error and the objecting party was not prejudiced.
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Anderson v. Bessemer City
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Woman sues because of sex discrimination, District court found in favour of plaintiff, appellate court overturned on basis of erroneous finding of facts. Findings of fact cannot be set aside unless clearly erroneous, where, although there is evidence to support the finding, the reviewing court is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.
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Lauro Lines s.r.l. v. Chasser
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Boat hijacked by terrorists. Plaintiff injured and sued in USA. Company says they can only sue in Italy. Courts says to bad, and they appeal. Appeals court says that decision was not final enough; Only final decisions are appealable, except those orders that conclusively determine the disputable question, resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action, and are effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.
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Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. v. Wetzel
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Woman sues insurance for violating maternity leave regulations. Wins summary judgement, but trial court (forgot?) does not award damages, thus not a final order, and not appealable.
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Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Cunningham
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Jury found for Aetna on one charge, but not on a fraud charge, which would come with different damages; If a plaintiff is denied the specific relief prayed for, whether in the amount or in the quality of the judgment, it has a right to be heard on appeal.
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Reise v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin
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Plaintiff sues university for discrimintation and cites mental anguish as an injury. Trial court says he should stand for a mental examination, plaintiff appeals; Trial court decisions regarding discovery matters are interlocutory orders, rather than final orders, and cannot be appealed prior to a final order.
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Lind v. Schenley Industries
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plaintiff sues, saying she is entitled to an increase in pay. Jury awards plaintiff, judge sets aside the verdict. A judge should not set aside the jury verdict as contrary to the weight of the evidence simply because he would have come to a different conclusion.
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Norton v. Snapper Power Equipment
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Plaintiff sues lawmower company for faulty lawn mower and loss of his fingers. JUry returns verdict for plaintiff, judge says no, and then appeals court says yes; When considering entering judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the court should consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and grant the judgment only where the evidence so strongly and so favorably points in favor of the moving party that reasonable people could not arrive at a contrary verdict.
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Pennsylvania Railroad v. Chamberlain
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Man sues railroad company for negligently causing the death of a brake man. Multiple witnesses says the crash did not happen and only one witness testified that it might have. Judge entered a directed verdict for Pennsylvania, saying Plaintiff did not meet burden of proof. Appeals court affirmed. Showing that there can be a little bit of weighing of the evidence.
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Reid v. San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad
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Cow either wandered through hole in fence or through open gate, not sure which; The plaintiff must fail where the undisputed evidence points with equal force to two things, one of which renders the defendant liable and the other not.
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McKey v. Fairbairn
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Old women slipped and fell and wanted to amend pretrial order to intorduce new theory, judge did not allow. A trial judge has wide discretion to grant or deny permission for a party to change her theory during trial.
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Monfore v. Phillips
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Plaintiff sued for death of husband from throat cancer. Two weeks before trial, several of the plaintiffs settled, leaving one who continued. He wanted to amend his pre-trial order to set forth the defense of blaming the others. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16(e), final pretrial orders may only be amended to prevent manifest injustice.
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Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Inc.
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A judge is biased and should recuse himself when a contributor's influence on his election is so substantial that it would offer a possible temptation to the average judge to lead him not to be impartial.
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Bias v. Advantage International, Inc.
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Bias died of Cocaine overdose, and family sued since company did not obtain health insurance; Summary judgment is granted where the moving party shows that the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.
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Tolan v. Cotton
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District Court and Appellate court improperly weighed the evidence on their motions for summary Judgement; Summary judgment may only be granted when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant, establishes that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
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Celotex Corp. v. Catrett
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Woman sued company for causing death of husband. She did not have good evidence indicating her husband was in contact with product, company did not have evidence that he didn't, but moved for Summary Judgement; A party making a motion for summary judgment does not need to provide affirmative evidence in the form of affidavits to support its motion.
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Houchens v. American Home Assurance Co.
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Woman's husband disappeared in Thailand. Summary judgment is granted, after adequate time for discovery, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.
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Ferguson v. Writers Guild of America, West
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Writer criticized the way arbitration was run. Court could do nothing because he agreed to that in the first place; Review of arbitration procedures is limited to determining whether the parties agreed to be bound to arbitration and whether the actual arbitration was conducted in conformance with the agreement.
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Ferguson v. Countrywide Credit Industries, Inc.
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Court found an arbitration agreement unconscionable for woman sueing for sexual harrasment; An arbitration agreement is unenforceable as unconscionable when it arises from an inequality of bargaining power or surprise and when the terms are so one-sided as to shock the conscience.
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Coulas v. Smith
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Man sues for promissory note, trial date is changed, says he wasn't aware. Court says not a default judement, but a summary judgment; If a defendant pleads on the merits of the case, but then does not show up at trial, the judgment entered against him is not a default judgment.
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National Hockey League v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc.
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Defendant took a long time to answer interoggatories, District court has wide latitude to dismiss cases, and did; Under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a court may dismiss a complaint because the plaintiff failed to respond to a discovery order in bad faith.
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Security National Bank of Sioux City v. Abbott Laboratories
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Durning depositions, lawyer kept interruppting with meritless objections; Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b), a court has wide latitude in determining sanctions for discovery violations.
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Silvestri v. General Motors Corp.
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Got in accident, failed to preserve the vehicle; The duty to preserve material evidence extends to that period before the litigation when a party reasonably should know that the evidence might be relevant to anticipated litigation.
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Chiquita International v. M/V Bolero Reefer
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Defendant sent expert to survey the damage, plaintiff wants to use information he gathered. Court rules they could have sent their own experts, should not be rewarded for being lazy; A party may not discover facts known or opinions held by an expert who has been retained or specially employed by another party in anticipation of litigation or preparation for trial and who is not expected to be called as a witness at trial, except upon a showing of exceptional circumstances under which it is impracticable for the party seeking discovery to obtain facts or opinions on the same subject by other means.
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Thompson v. The Haskell Co.
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Plaintiff says defendant put her in a depressive state, she had seen a phyciatrist, did not wan that record to be used, but was really important and unable to obatina that same information any other way; Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(4), facts or opinions held by an expert retained in anticipation of litigation may be discovered on a party's showing of exceptional circumstances warranting disclosure due to the impracticability of obtaining the facts or opinions on the same subject by other means.
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Hickman v. Taylor
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In preparation of litigation, attorney conducted interviews, plaintiff wanted to use the information gathered; Opposing counsel must demonstrate necessity, justification, or undue prejudice for access to counsel's written statements, private memoranda, and personal recollections.
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Rengifo v. Erevos Enterprises, Inc.
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Plainitff moved to protect his immigration status from being used in court; Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), an order may be issued to prevent certain matters from being inquired into to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense.
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Price v. Leflore County Detention Center Public Trust
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Woman asks jail for 10 years worth of complaints, thats a lot; Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26, discovery may be limited when the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.
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Favale v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport
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Plaintiff asks for documents relating to anger managment of an employee only when she was sueing for sexual harrassment; A party must demonstrate that requested information is relevant to a claim or defense in order to prevail on a motion to compel.
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Butler v. Rigsby
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Plaintiff wanted several things, only got two; The scope of discovery includes any matter, not privileged, that is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action or is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.
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Bonerb v. Richard J. Caron Foundation
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Injured at Drug facility, orginally sued for negligence, Statute of Limitations ran out, but wnted to amend complaint for malpractice; A claim relates back to the initial pleading when the claim asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the same nucleus of operative facts set forth in the original pleading.
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Moore v. Baker
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Moore sued for violation of consent law, wants to amend to negligence, was denied; for An amendment relates back to the original filing when it asserts a claim or defense that arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set out in the original pleading.
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Beeck v. Aquaslide 'N' Dive Corp.
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Defendant after the suit had been going on for a while, wanted to amend defense to deny they manufactured the slide, they were denied; A party may amend his pleading only by leave of court or written consent of the adverse party and leave shall be freely given when justice so requires.
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Zielinski v. Philadelphia Piers, Inc.
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COntruction company put in general denial even though they knew plaintiff was sueing the wrong company. A general denial is ineffective if some of the claims denied are true and not at issue.
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Christian v. Mattel, Inc.
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Plainitff said barbie ripped off her doll, attorney did no research and acted like a douche during discorvery, however Rule 11 sanctions are not warranted; An attorney has a duty prior to filing a complaint to conduct a reasonable factual investigation and to perform adequate legal research that confirms whether the theoretical underpinnings of the complaint are warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for an extension, modification or reversal of existing law.
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Walker v. Norwest Corp.
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Rule 11 sanctions are warranted if attorney pleads diversity jurisdiction, but does not stipulate the citizenship of the parties.
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Jones v. Bock
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Plaintiff sues prison, prison argues he did not exaughst administrative remedies; Exhaustion is an affirmative defense that must be plead and proved by the defendant.
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Stradford v. Zurich Insurance Co.
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In alleging fraud or mistake, a party must state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake under Rule 9(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
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Haddle v. Garrison
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A court should dismiss a claim for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted if the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.
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Ashcroft v. Iqbal
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Under Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), a complaint will only survive a motion to dismiss if it alleges nonconclusory facts that, taken as true, state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.
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Bell v. Novick Transfer Co.
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Plaintiff, in his complaint, stated that the driver of a truck drove in negligently, without specifying how, court upheld compaint; (1) A claim upon which relief may be granted is a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief; (2) a party is not entitled to a more definite statement unless the facts are necessary for the party to form his response to the pleading.
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Bridges v. Diesel Service, Inc.
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Plaintiff had not exhausted administrative remedies; Rule 11 sanctions are appropriate where the complaint filed is objectively unreasonable under the circumstances, or where the claim asserted is patently unmeritorious or frivolous.
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Fuentes v. Shevin
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Party repossessed stove after maintenance dispute without notifying the other party; Parties whose rights are to be affected are entitled to be heard, and in order that they may enjoy that right they must first be notified.
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Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
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Plainitff sues navy, saying they should have made an enviromental report, they say national security trumps all; In awarding injunctive relief, a court must balance the competing claims of injury and must consider the effect the requested relief will have on each party.
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Walgreen Co. v. Sara Creek Property Co.
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Damages are the normal remedy for a breach of contract, but a permanent injunction may be more appropriate if the plaintiff shows that damages are inadequate based on balancing the costs and benefits of the alternatives.
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Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School v. Geoghegan
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Woman overstayed her welcome at a hospital; An injunction may be issued to enjoin a continuing trespass or a series of repeated trespasses if an action for damages would not be an adequate remedy.
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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell
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Awards of punitive damages by state courts that exceed a single-digit ratio between punitive damages and compensatory damages are usually "grossly excessive" and violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
