Court Opinion

ID: 9482995
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:07:18.749341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:20.718639
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join the judgment and the opinion of the court. Given the dearth of information available to him, my brother has done an admirable job of feeling his way to a reasoned solution of the issue before us. It must be admitted, however, that our decision involves a significant element of uncertainty1 — uncertainty produced by the lack of sufficient Delaware authority and by the refusal of that state to permit this court to seek guidance on the issue from the Supreme Court of Delaware. See FDIC v. Blue Rock Shopping Ctr., Inc., 599 F.Supp. 684, 687 (D.Del.1984); see also Del. Const, art. IV, § 11(9); Del.Sup.Ct.R. 41.
The inability — or rather the lack of capacity — of the federal courts to obtain reasonably clear guidance on state law matters is having a disastrous impact on the judicial governance of this country. Countless hours are spent by conscientious federal judges attempting to ascertain the content of state law as required by Erie R.R. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938). Sophisticated business litigation is subject to an element of uncertainty that only results in greater legal fees for the attorneys involved and greater financial burdens to the parties.
If it is the will of the Congress that we decide, under our diversity jurisdiction, matters of corporate governance regulated by a state five hundred miles away, perhaps it is time that thought be given to the development of more effective devices for obtaining an accurate reading of the content of that state’s law. While perhaps there is federal power to effect such a change, our tradition of federal-state judicial cooperation would seem the most appropriate avenue to resolve the current situation.

. For this reason, I hardly find fault with the valiant effort of our colleague in the district court who reached, after the same struggle, the opposite conclusion.