Court Opinion

ID: 9651316
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:13:30.708081+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:31.731818
License: Public Domain

LINDLEY, District Judge
(concurring).
I agree that the judgment should be reversed, but 1 would employ somewhat different reasoning. Rule 23(b) of the Federal Rules of Procedure is clearly of procedural character. Its function is to endow a shareholder with the right to maintain a suit such as this. But who constitutes a shareholder, it seems to me, is a question of substantive law, which under Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188, 114 A.L.R. 1487, must be determined by the law of the state. In other words, the status of plaintiff who claims to be a stockholder is a question of Illinois law. Under that law, plaintiff’s status is that of a shareholder, as pointed out in Judge Major’s opinion. Hence it has a right to maintain the suit as provided in Rule 23(b).