Fulbright & Jaworski Secures Supreme Court Win in Subject Matter Jurisdiction Case; Court Rules in Favor of Petitioner Grupo Dataflux.Business Editors/Legal Writers HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2004 On May 17, 2004, the United States Supreme Court United States Supreme Court: see Supreme Court, United States. ruled in favor of Grupo Dataflux in an important opinion addressing the limits on subject matter jurisdiction in federal court. Fulbright partners Bill Boyce and Mark Robertson and senior associate Warren Huang handled the case in the Supreme Court. Bill Boyce presented argument on behalf of the petitioner, Grupo Dataflux. The case is No. 02-1689, Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Group L.P. The central issue is whether a party's change of citizenship after the filing of a lawsuit in federal court can create retroactive jurisdiction. Adhering to precedent dating back nearly 200 years, the Court reversed a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
Writing for the majority, Justice Scalia stated, "We decline to endorse a new exception to a time-of-filing rule that has a pedigree of almost two centuries. Uncertainty regarding the question of jurisdiction is particularly undesirable, and collateral litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. on the point particularly wasteful. The stability provided by our time-tested rule weighs heavily against the approval of any new deviation." Atlas Global, a Texas limited partnership, filed a breach of contract suit against Grupo Dataflux, a Mexican corporation, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas is the Federal district court with jurisdiction over the southern part of Texas and is a part of the Fifth Circuit. The court's headquarters is in Houston, Texas and has six additional offices in the district. . Jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship A phrase used with reference to the jurisdiction of the federal courts which, under the U.S. Constitution, Art. III, § 2, extends to cases between citizens of different states designating the condition existing when the party on one side of a lawsuit is a citizen of one state and . At the time that Atlas sued Dataflux, two of Atlas' partners were Mexican citizens. Shortly before trial, Atlas completed a transaction that removed the Mexican citizens from the partnership. Thus, diversity existed at the time of trial, but not when Atlas filed its suit. At trial, the jury awarded Atlas $750,000 in damages. After trial but before judgment, the court granted Dataflux's motion to dismiss for lack of diversity jurisdiction at the time Atlas filed suit. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court reversed the trial court, concluding that the jurisdictional defect was cured by the time the trial began, and that effect should be given to Atlas' post-filing change in citizenship because substantial judicial resources were devoted to the case. The Fifth Circuit's judgment created a circuit split with the United States Court of Appeals The United States courts of appeals (or circuit courts) are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system. A court of appeals decides appeals from the district courts within its federal judicial circuit, and in some instances from other for the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). Circuit. Fulbright filed a petition for writ of certiorari Noun 1. writ of certiorari - a common law writ issued by a superior court to one of inferior jurisdiction demanding the record of a particular case certiorari judicial writ, writ - (law) a legal document issued by a court or judicial officer with the Supreme Court, which was granted on Oct. 14, 2003. Bill Boyce argued the case on March 3, 2004. Fulbright attorneys John Barrett, Layne Kruse, Kathy Mackillop, Bill Pakalka, Anne Rodgers, Joy Soloway and Julie Hardin also assisted with the case. Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Founded in 1919, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. is a leading full-service international law firm, with approximately 900 attorneys in 11 offices in Houston, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Washington, D.C., Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Hong Kong, London and Munich. Fulbright provides a full range of legal services to both domestic and foreign clients worldwide. For more information, please visit our new Web site at www.fulbright.com. |
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