Opinion ID: 1830354
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Erie Doctrine Considered

Text: It has been commonly supposed that under the familiar Erie doctrine the federal courts, when exercising diversity of citizenship jurisdiction, apply state substantive law and federal procedural law. This, of course, is not so much what was said in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938) as it is the subsequent mythology. We understand the Erie doctrine to hold that the courts of the United States are required by the Federal Rules of Decisions Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1652, to enforce what has been loosely (and, in our view, often misleadingly) referred to as state substantive law. This law is not enforced because of any power the state may have to enact a statute enforcement of which is obligatory upon the federal courts. Erie ultimately construes a federal statute. Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, supra , Reed, J., concurring, 304 U.S. at 90-92, 58 S.Ct. at 827-828, 82 L.Ed. at 1201-1202. It holds in effect that the Congress has declared in the Rules of Decisions Act that state law applies in certain cases tried in federal courts. [7] But the Erie doctrine does not include and encompass all state laws arguably substantive. Even though there may be an outcome determinative conflict between state and federal law, there has been a clear recognition that there are many instances in which a federal rule must prevail even in diversity cases. This is so even though there be present unmistakably important state interests underlying the rejected state rule. In Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965), the Supreme Court enforced the federal rule regarding service of process on an executor, even though enforcement of the conflicting Massachusetts rule would have produced a different result in the lawsuit. In Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365 (5th Cir.1969), the Court of Appeals held that a federal test applies when a jury verdict is challenged on a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Szantay v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 349 F.2d 60 (4th Cir.1965) held that South Carolina's door closing statute would not be enforced against non-Carolina litigants in a diversity case, even though the South Carolina state courts clearly would have enforced it. In Stovall v. Price Waterhouse Co., 652 F.2d 537, 540-541 (5th Cir.1981) the Court of Appeals applied a federal rule of collateral estoppel to a diversity case arising out of Mississippi, even though the state rule was substantially different. Just how the courts of the United States decide whether a particular state rule should be enforced seems to become more obscure with each case. Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U.S. 99, 65 S.Ct. 1464, 89 L.Ed. 2079 (1945), suggested a mechanical outcome determinative test. Mechanics produced arbitrary results, so Byrd v. Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, 356 U.S. 525, 78 S.Ct. 893, 2 L.Ed.2d 953 (1958), adopted a balancing of interests test  the state's interests in the enforcement of its laws weighed against any federal interest implicated by the particular question presented, all considered against the backdrop of everyone's interest in the equitable administration of the laws and avoidance of unseemly forum shopping. In Hanna v. Plumer, supra , the pendulum swung back to the middle, toward a somewhat more mechanical test, at least in cases where the federal rule at issue was within the Supreme Court's rule making power. 28 U.S.C. § 2072. Precisely what the Erie rule means today we do not pretend to know. [8] The blunt substantive  procedural distinction has proved unsatisfactory in all except the simplest of cases. [9] What is clear, however, is that the question whether the Mississippi penalty statute should be applied in this case is a pure Erie question. It is the Erie doctrine which provides the clues as to what the questions are, to what information the Court of Appeals needs. Having in mind notions of some sort of golden rule for the federal system of which we are a part, we will answer as best we can.