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65 A.B.A. J. 1114 (1979)
Shall We Have a Funeral for Erie v. Tompkins

handle is hein.journals/abaj65 and id is 1116 raw text is: Browse by Arthur John Keeffe Shall we have a funeral for Erie v. Tompkins? TONY LEWIS has not reported the Su- which is an Indiana contract, Stat preme Court of the United States for the Farm was obligated to defend Rush i New York Times on a day-to-day basis the event of a suit claiming negliger in a long time. It seems like yesterday operation of the automobile and to pa that the Court noted jurisdiction in any judgment rendered against him. Baker v. Carr and decided to hear and No suit was commenced in Indian not duck gerrymander cases. What a because it has a guest statute th joyful day that was! Reason enough to would effectively bar any suit by Sa do an Irish jig in the press room with chuk. But is the guest statute of I Tony, who had written in the Maryland diana, if it applies, constitutional and Law Review a beautiful piece urging statute to which another state is obl the Court to do precisely what it did in gated to give full faith and credit? a masterful opinion by Justice Brennan. In 1973 Savchuk emigrated to Mir (369 U.S. 186 (1962).) nesota, which does not have a gues For me, the happiest day in the Su- statute and where foreign guest statute preme Court since Baker was February are not enforced, and attempted to su 21, 1979, when the Court noted juris- Rush by having him personally serve diction in Rush v. Savchuk (No. 78- in Indiana and by garnishing the Stat 952). The case had come to the Court Farm policy-State Farm being subjec before at the same term that it decided to service of garnishment process i Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186 (1977), Minnesota because it also does busi and the Court had then remanded it ness there. (Rush v. Savchuk, 433 U.S. 902 (1977)) Rush and State Farm immediatel for further consideration in light of raised a federal question, claiming lac Shaffer. of procedural due process. Their mc In January, 1972, Savchuk was a tion was denied, and the denial a passenger in an automobile driven by firmed by the Supreme Court of Mir Rush in Elkhart, Indiana. Both were nesota (Savchuk v. Rush, 245 N.W. 2 Hoosiers. As a result of an accident, 624 (1976)). This was the case the Su Savchuk alleges he sustained personal preme Court remanded for considera injuries. Rush was insured by State tion in the light of Shaffer. Farm, which does business in Indiana Shaffer declared unconstitutiona and most of the other 47 contiguous laws of Delaware that permitted the ir states. Pursuant to the insurance policy, stitution in Delaware of in rem lawsuit turtlenecks by Charles Fincher te n It y la It I- a i- it '- st e d e t n y k I- d 1- 7I- by attaching or sequestering the stock an individual holds in a Delaware cor- poration. Under the Delaware law, this could be done to a nonresident of Del- aware even though the stock was pledged to a bank in San Francisco. The Court declared that the Delaware pro- cedure lacked due process absent the minimum contacts required by Interna- tional Shoe Company v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310 (1945). Shaffer questions Harris v. Balk, 198 U.S. 215 (1905). There Epstein of Bal- timore asserted that Balk of North Carolina owed him $300. When Harris of North Carolina who was indebted to Balk in the amount of $180, made the mistake of visiting Maryland, Epstein sued Balk and obtained in rem jurisdic- tion by garnishing the $180 debt. The Supreme Court upheld the levy. The argument in Rush v. Savchuk is precisely the same. Under the policy written in Indiana, State Farm brings into Minnesota a debt it owes Rush. Savchuk attempts to levy on that debt in Minnesota. The case is complicated by Indiana's guest statute, the constitutionality of which is doubtful, and it raises the right of Minnesota courts, state and federal, to refuse to honor the law and statutes of another state even when constitutional. 1114 American Bar Association Journal

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