Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins 1938
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 978-983 |
Page 978
Petitioner: Erie Railroad Company
Respondent: Harry J. Tompkins
Petitioner's Claim: That state law rather than federal common law should determine the responsibility of a railroad to pay damages to an injured private citizen.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: Theodore Kiendl
Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Fred H. Rees
Justices for the Court: Hugo L. Black, Louis D. Brandeis, Charles E. Hughes, Owen J. Roberts, Harlan F. Stone, Stanley F. Reed
Justices Dissenting: Pierce Butler, James Clark McReynolds (Benjamin N. Cardozo did not participate)
Date of Decision: April 25, 1938
Decision: Ruled in favor of Erie Railroad reversing a lower court decision that had awarded damages to Tompkins
Significance: The ruling reversed a previous court decision made almost a century earlier recognizing a federal common law. The Erie decision held that no such law exists. Federal court decisions involving citizens from different states follow state law when neither constitutional issues nor acts of Congress are not involved. The decision also gave state high court rulings the same degree of importance as laws passed by state legislatures.
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Common law is a collection of rules and principles that come from longstanding customs or traditions. In the United States, they often come from early English customs, general law, and judicial (court) decisions recognizing a custom. English common law, finally established in written form in England in the eighteenth century, forms the basis for U.S. law and still applies to many cases in modern America.
When the Framers of the Constitution were busy creating a new national governmental system, a major issue receiving considerable debate raged between the Federalists wanting a strong central government and states' rights supporters wanting most power to be held by state governments, not the central federal government. In creating the U.S. legal system, the Framers of the document established a U.S. Supreme Court in Article III and identified federal jurisdiction on specific kinds of cases. Though no other federal courts were established by the Constitution, it did give Congress power to establish federal courts as it saw the need. Quickly, Congress used their authority to establish a federal court system under the Judiciary Act of 1789. Federal district courts were established in each state. According to the act, federal courts must apply state laws, not create its own general law. The "laws of the several states" are to be "regarded as rules of decision" in civil actions in federal courts "in cases where they apply." In regard to civil (private noncriminal disputes) cases, federal courts could only accept cases involving citizens from...
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