Analyzing Jurisdiction in Business Disputes: Two Cases, Exams of Civil procedure

Download Analyzing Jurisdiction in Business Disputes: Two Cases and more Exams Civil procedure in PDF only on Docsity! UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF LAW INTRODUCTION TO CIVIL PROCEDURE Section A (Two Hours) Day Division Thursday, December 17, 2009 Professor Robert J. Condlin 1:30 P.M. - 3:30 P.M. No._______ Signature: _____________________________ Print Name: ___________________________ Submitted Electronically Yes____ No_____ INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Honor Code. Student conduct, during examinations and at all other times, is governed by the Student Honor Code. 2. Your Name, Examination Number and Submission. Sign and print your name in the blanks above. Put the examination number, course title and instructor name on the examination envelope. Indicate whether you are submitting the examination electronically. Submit the examination questions at the conclusion of the examination. Do not put the questions in the examination envelope. 3. Time. Submit your examination answers within the announced time for the examination. If you submit your answers late you will be subject to a penalty. 4. Computer Exams. You may take the examination by computer. This is an Option 2 – Open Mode – access to Exam4 and student computer-based notes – no Internet Access – “drag and drop” prohibited, examination. If you use a computer you must use the Exam4 examination-taking software provided by the Law School. You must provide your own computer and must download a copy of the Fall 2009 version of the Exam4 software to your computer, test the software, and have the computer in working order before the date of this examination. At the end of the examination, choose the "Submit Electronically" function in the Exam4 software. The software will request your Exam ID (Examination Number). Put the course name on your answer as instructed in the handout, but do not put your name anywhere on your answer. Submit your answer within the time limits for the examination. After submitting your answer electronically, return to the examination room promptly and turn in (but do not seal) the examination envelope, with a notation on the envelope stating "Submitted Electronically." At the same time, turn in your examination questions to the proctor. Technological Problems: If you experience a technological problem during the examination, consider the amount of time remaining and decide whether you should continue (or restart) the examination in Blue Books. No additional time will be provided for technological problems. Responsibility for submitting your answers on time electronically lies entirely with you. The Information Technology (IT) Department will assist in retrieving examination files from your computer, and the Office of Registration & Enrollment will accept an IT-certified copy of an examination file retrieved from your computer as a timely submission, as long as there is no evidence of tampering with either your computer, or the examination file. 5. Handwritten Exams. If you submit handwritten answers to the examination, put the number found above on each of your Blue Book answers to the examination. Both the envelope and your answers should contain your examination number, the course name, and the instructor's name. Do not put your own name anywhere on the envelope, or on the Blue Book answers. Upon completion of the examination, put your answers in the envelope, fasten the flap, and hand in the envelope to the examination proctor. Be sure to enclose all of your answers in the envelope — you will be graded on only what is inside the envelope. Do not put the examination questions in the envelope. Hand in the questions separately to the examination proctor. You are responsible for ensuring that all of your completed answers and questions are handed in to the examination proctor. 6. Special Instructions. The examination consists of three questions and each question counts equally as a percentage of the overall grade. Allocate your time accordingly. Be sure to explain your answers fully. The reasons for answers usually will be more important than the answers themselves. Analyze the issues presented by the fact pattern; no credit will be given for long descriptive statements about law or fact in the abstract. If facts are not clear, or if critical information seems to be missing, indentify the facts or missing information and explain how it affects your legal analysis. You may bring any study materials you like into the examination with you but you may not use electronic communication devices of any kind (except for the Exam4 software) in completing the examination. lobster fishermen all of whom live in New Bedford, Massachusetts, filed the present action in Rhode Island state court, alleging that Regulation 15 violates the Rhode Island statute authorizing the creation of the DEM (the Statute). The Statute provides, in pertinent part, that “he use of retroactive control dates in the allocation of fishing licenses is prohibited unless expressly required by federal law.” Rhode Island included this provision in the Statute to insure that newcomers to the fishing industry would not be denied access to State commercial fishing licenses. The Statute also provides that anyone who has been or will be denied a commercial fishing license based on the use of a control date requirement may sue to enforce the Statute’s prohibition. The Alliance and the Cooperative (the Plaintiffs) filed the present action on behalf of their members who did not have Rhode Island commercial fishing licenses in the period between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2003. The Plaintiffs ask for a declaration that Regulation 15 violates the Statute and an injunction against DEM’s use of the Regulation to allocate fishing licenses. DEM removed the case to this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1441 (a) and the Plaintiffs have moved to remand to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. How should the District Court rule on the Plaintiffs’ motion to remand for lack of subject matter jurisdiction? Explain your answer fully. Question Number Three SHADY GROVE ORTHOPEDIC ASSOCIATES, P.A., on behalf of itself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant. United State District Court for the Southern District of New York Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates (Shady Grove), a Maryland corporation, filed the present class action against Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate), an Illinois corporation, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Subject matter jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Shady Grove alleges that Allstate failed to make payments owed to policyholders (including Shady Grove) within the time frame prescribed by New York Insurance Law and thus incurred State statutory interest penalties of two percent per month on each overdue payment. Statutory interest penalties for the entire plaintiff class exceed $5,000,000, although Shady Grove’s individual penalty damages amount to only $500. Allstate moved to dismiss the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. It argues that this Court must apply Rule 901(b) of the New York Civil Practice Laws & Rules (CPLR). CPLR 901(b) is a New York state statute which provides that: Unless a state statute creating or imposing a penalty specifically authorizes the recovery thereof in a class action, an action to recover a penalty imposed by state statute may not be maintained as a class action. Since Shady Grove does not satisfy the amount in controversy requirement individually, Allstate argues, and since it may not sue on behalf of a plaintiff class under CPLR 901(b), the Court must dismiss the present action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Shady Grove responds that Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) governs class actions in federal court and that FRCP 23 permits a plaintiff to sue as a representative of a class if the claims of the class are too numerous to join individually, the claims have common questions of law and fact, the representative’s claims are typical of the class as a whole, and the representative will adequately protect the interests of the class. [Assume that Shady Grove’s action satisfies these requirements.] Rule 23 does not prohibit the use of a class action to recover a statutory penalty. The New York Court of Appeals has described the purposes of CPLR 901(b) in the following terms: By including the penalty exception in CPLR 901(b), the Legislature declined to make class actions available where individual plaintiffs had sufficient economic incentive to file actions in their own right. Class actions are designed to encourage plaintiffs to sue when the economic benefits of a lawsuit would otherwise be too small to make suit economically viable. The availability of statutory penalties provides such economic encouragement. [Assume that New York law governs the dispute and that no other New York statute authorizes the use of a class action to recover a statutory penalty.] How should the Federal District Court rule on Allstate’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction? Explain your answer fully.