Opinion ID: 2623341
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the nature of the court's function when answering questions from a federal court

Text: ¶ 6 In answering questions posed by a federal court, the parameters of state-law claims or defenses identified by the submitted questions may be tested, but it is not this court's office to intrude (by its responses) upon the certifying court's decision-making process. [8] The latter must be left entirely free to assess the impact of our answers and then make its own appraisal of the proof in the case before it. [9] ¶ 7 Because this case is not before us for decision, we refrain (as we must) from applying the declared state-law responses to the facts in the federal-court litigation, which have been tendered for review by the certifying court either in the form of evidence adduced at trial or by acceptable probative substitutes (so-called evidentiary materials). [10] The task of analyzing today's answer for its application to this case is deferred in its entirety to the certifying court.