Opinion ID: 2617624
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: the nature of this courts function when answering certified questions from a federal court

Text: While we can set the parameters for the permissible use of (multiple) successive proceedings as a predicate for malicious prosecution, this court's assessment of the evidence adduced at the trial of this cause is beyond the allowable bounds of its responsibility. It is not this court's province to intrude (by responses to the certified questions) upon the federal court's decision-making process. Because the case is not before us for decision, we refrain from applying the given state-law responses to the facts elicited in the federal-court litigation or from passing upon the effect of federal procedure on the record and issues in the case. [6] We hence must defer to the certifying court the task of analyzing the impact of our answers on the components defined as the Process.