Conflict of Laws Flashcards
Recognition of judgments
Plaintiffs will seek recognition to access enforcement mechanisms in the rendering state.
Defendants will seek recognition to prevent a plaintiff from relitigating a claim or issue.
Judgments from sister states
Are the requirements of full faith and credit satisfied?
Are there any valid defenses to full faith and credit?
Judgments from foreign countries
Is the foreign judgment entitled to comity or is there a relevant treaty?
Recognizing court uses discretion to decide whether the foreign judgment should be recognized. Typically will ask whether the foreign court had jurisdiction and whether the proceedings there were fair.
Full faith and credit clause requirements
Rendering state must have had jurisdiction over the parties and jurisdiction over the subject matter. Exception is where issue of jurisdiction was fully and fairly litigated.
Decision must have been on the merits. Examples of not on the merits include statutes of limitations, lack of jurisdiction, misjoinder, improper venue, failure to state a claim (sometimes). Remember default judgments and consent judgments are on the merits.
Judgment must be final. Judgment on appeal in rendering jurisdiction is not final.
Three requirements are evaluated using the law of the rendering state.
Defenses to full faith and credit
- Penal judgments not entitled to full faith and credit- judgments that punish an an offense against the public. In practice this means the plaintiff was the state.
- judgment obtained by extrinsic fraud is not entitled to full faith and credit. Extrinsic fraud is fraud that could not be corrected during the regular course of proceedings leading to judgment.
Choice of law in federal diversity cases
A federal court sitting in diversity applies the choice of law approach of the state in which it sits.
Transferred diversity case- when case from proper venue apply choice of law approach of transferor court. When case was in an improper venue apply law of transferee court.
Issue statement for choice of law essay
The issue presented is which state’s law will govern the outcome of the litigation. The governing law will be selected by the forum court using the ___ choice of law approach.
First restatement vested rights approach
The court will apply the law of that state, mandated by the applicable vesting rule. That rule is selected depending on the relevant substantive area of law.
Third paragraph
- Categorize substantive area of law
- State applicable vesting rule
- Apply vesting rule to determine governing law
- Determine result
Interest analysis
Under this approach the court will consider which states have a legitimate interest in the outcome of the litigation. The forum court will apply its own law as long as it has a legitimate interest. If the forum state has no legitimate interest, it will apply the law of another interested state.
Paragraph 3
- discuss states with legitimate interests
- characterize type of conflict (false conflict where only one state has an interest or true conflict where both states are interested)
- choose governing law based on type of conflict (if false conflict apply law of interested state, if true conflict and forum state is interested, apply forum law)
- determine result
Second restatement most significant relationship
Under this approach the court will apply the law of the state which is most significantly related to the outcome of the litigation. To determine this, the court will consider connecting facts and policy principles.
Paragraph 3
- discuss connecting facts
- discuss policy principles
- choose governing law based on most significant relationship
- determine result
Vesting rules- TORTS
First restatement- governing law is where the injury occurred.
Second restatement most significant relationship-
FACTS- consider (1) place of injury, (2) conduct causing injury (3) where parties are at home and (4) where relationship, if any is centered
POLICY- relevant policies of forum state and relevant policies of other connected states
Governing law will almost always be the law of the place of injury. Exceptions are loss distribution rules and where parties share a common domicile.
Vesting rules- CONTRACTS
Choice of law provisions will be honored if they are valid and express. If in doubt on the exam, find the choice of law provision invalid and conduct the choice of law analysis. They will be invalid if they have no reasonable relationship to the contract or if they were included without true mutual consent.
First restatement vesting- formation apply place of contracting. if performance apply law of the place of performance.
Second restatement most significant relationship
FACTS- place of contracting, place of negotiation, place of performance, place where parties are at home
POLICY- relevant policies of forum state, relevant policies of other connected states, reasonable expectation of the parties.
Rules for property
All approaches apply the same rules.
Immovable real property- law of situs applies
Movable personal property- if inter vivos, law of situs at time of transaction. If inheritance, law of decedent’s domicile at time of death.
Rules for family law
If marriage is valid where performed, it will be recognized as valid everywhere. Except where parties temporarily relocate to enter into a marriage that would not be valid in their home state.
Forum will apply its own divorce laws.
Legitimacy of a child governed by law of mother’s domicile at time of child’s birth. Validity of subsequent acts of legitimation concerning paternity are governed by the law of the father’s domicile.
Choice of law defenses
Public policy- forum court will not apply a law that is against its own fundamental public policy.
Procedural rules- court will always apply its own procedural rules
- remember statutes of limitation are procedural in this context
- borrowing statutes that direct the court to look at both forum limitations period and foreign limitations period and apply the shorter period
- limitations that condition a substantive right (i.e. statute of limitations buried within a statutory cause of action)
