Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Swift v. Tyson

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Concur/dissent
  
Catron

Date decided
  
1842

Full case name
  
John Swift v. George W. Tyson

Citations
  
41 U.S. 1 (more) 10 L. Ed. 865; 1842 U.S. LEXIS 345

Prior history
  
On a certificate of division from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York

Majority
  
Story, joined by unanimous

Ruling court
  
Supreme Court of the United States

Similar
  
Erie Railroad Co v To, Pennoyer v Neff, Prigg v Pennsylvania, International Shoe Co v Washington, Charles River Bridge v

Swift v. Tyson, 41 U.S. 1 (1842)[1], was a case brought in diversity in the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York on a bill of Exchange accepted in New York in which the Supreme Court of the United States determined that United States federal courts hearing cases brought under their diversity jurisdiction pursuant to the Judiciary Act of 1789 must apply the statutory law of the states when the state legislature of the state in question had spoken on the issue but did not have to apply the state's common law in those cases in which that state's legislature had not spoken on the issue. The Court's ruling meant that the federal courts, when deciding matters not specifically addressed by the state legislature, had the authority to develop a federal common law.

Contents

Statute

Judiciary Act of 1789, §34: "the laws of the several states, except where the constitution, treaties or statutes of the United States shall otherwise recognise or provide, shall be regarded as rules of decision in trials at common law, in the courts of the United States, in cases where they apply."

Holdings

The Court:

  1. Held that a bona fide holder of a negotiable instrument for valuable consideration, without any notice of the facts which implicate its validity as between the antecedent parties, if he takes it under an endorsement made before the same becomes due, holds the title unaffected by those facts, and may recover thereon although, as between the antecedent parties, the transaction may be without any legal validity.
  2. Held that §34 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 does not restrict federal courts hearing diversity of citizenship cases from deriving their "own" common law.
  3. Sustained the determination of the lower federal court that, under federal common law (with reference to general principles of commercial jurisprudence), a pre-existing debt constitutes a valuable consideration for a negotiable instrument.

Reasoning

  • Common law is not strictly local; court decisions aspire towards true interpretations, which are to be sought, not in the decisions themselves, but in general principles and doctrines. Court decisions do not constitute laws, or conclusive authority as to what the law is, but only evidence of what the law is.
  • What is strictly local law: the state's positive statutes; constructions thereof adopted by state courts; and rights and titles to things having a permanent locality, e.g. to real estate and other matters immovable and intra-territorial in their nature and character.
  • What is not local but "common" law: the rights and titles created in contracts or other instruments of a commercial nature, which are to be sought in general principles of commercial jurisprudence.
  • In Judiciary Act 1789 § 34, "the laws of the several states" was intended to refer to state laws strictly local—and thus, by the above reasoning, not to a state's "common" law.
  • Thus, the Judiciary Act 1789 § 34 does not bind Federal courts to state commercial jurisprudence. The Federal jurisdiction is free to derive its "own" common law.
  • The Court sustained the determination of the lower federal court that, under federal common law,
  • A pre-existing debt constitutes a valuable consideration for a negotiable instrument.

    • References

    Swift v. Tyson Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA