Opinion ID: 18015
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Halphen Is Circuit Diversity Precedent

Text: “Ordinarily, a state court’s answer to a certified question is final and binding upon the parties between whom the issue arose.” Sifers v. General Marine Catering Co., 892 F.2d 386, 391 & n.22 39 (5th Cir. 1990) (citing Hopkins v. Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 394 F.2d 656, 657 (5th Cir. 1968); National Educ. Ass’n. v. Lee County Bd. of Pub. Instruction, 467 F.2d 447, 450 n.6 (5th Cir. 1972); Redgrave v. Boston Symphony Orchestra, 855 F.2d 888, 903 (1st Cir. 1988); 17A CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT ET AL., FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 4248, at 179 (2d ed. 1988)). Such an answer, therefore, generally becomes “the law of the case,” Sifers, 892 F.2d at 391 & n.23 (citing Boyd v. Bowman, 455 F.2d 927, 928 (5th Cir. 1972) (per curiam); Tarr v. Manchester Ins. Corp., 544 F.2d 14, 14-15 (1st Cir. 1976) (per curiam)); and, further, because we consider the state court’s answer to be binding in the proceedings between the parties to the certified case, that answer becomes the law of this circuit and binding upon parties who were not parties to the certified case. Sifers, 892 F.2d at 391-92. In Halphen v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 788 F.2d 274 (5th Cir. 1986), this court received the Louisiana Supreme Court’s answer to a certified question with the state court’s opinion, Halphen v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 484 So. 2d 110 (La. 1986), and applied that interpretation of Louisiana law by the state supreme court to the parties and the case before this court. Subsequently, this court has applied Halphen retroactively (and prospectively) to cases arising both before and after the state supreme court’s decision.8 Thus, Halphen is the controlling law of 8 See e.g., Robertson v. Superior PMI, Inc., 791 F.2d 402 (5th Cir. 1986); Vickers v. Chiles Drilling Co., 822 F.2d 535 (5th Cir. 1987); Houston Oil & Minerals Corp. v. American Int’l Tool Co., 827 F.2d 1049 (5th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1067 (1988); Richard v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 853 F.2d 1258 (5th Cir. 40 this circuit in Louisiana diversity cases, and must be applied to the present case because it arose and was pending when Halphen was decided.