Erie R. Co. v Tompkins- US Supreme Court (1938)

Ponda Baba, an Aqualish smuggler, was peacefully enjoying a drink in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley, Tatooine one afternoon when a young Jedi approached him, and began to hassle the bartender Wuher, one of Ponda's friends, for a beer. Seeing that the Jedi had not paid for his drink, and knowing how upset Wuher got when droids entered the cantina, even briefly, Ponda decided to stick up for his friend, and had his partner, Dr. Cornelius Evasan translate his dislike for the arrogant Jedi. Suddenly, an older Jedi appeared and unprovokedly sliced off Ponda's arm with a lightsaber.

Under Tatooine case law (law created by court decisions, rather than by legislative statutes), Jedi were given a certain amount of leeway (to prevent unnecessary Imperial attention), and Ponda knew that any planetary court was likely to dismiss any claim he filed against his attackers.

Ponda therefore decided to file a claim in Tatooine's Imperial District Court based on diversity of citizenship (usually only Imperial issues are tried in Imperial courts, but planetary issues are allowed when, as in Ponda's case, both parties are from different planets and the amount of damages requested exceeds 75,000 credits. This is known as diversity of citizenship, and is meant to protect the non-planetary resident from bias in a planetary court).

When a planetary issue is tried in Imperial Court, the court is required to apply planetary law rather than Imperial law, in order to prevent plaintiffs from bringing suit in Imperial law just to escape unfavorable planetary law (this is known as "forum shopping"). However, at the time Ponda brought his suit against the Jedis, the Imperial court was only required to apply "written" planetary law, which included planetary statutes, but not planetary case law. Since there was no Tatooine statute prohibiting Jedi violence in cantinas, the Imperial court was free to decide the case based on Imperial common law (basically however they wanted), and awarded Ponda his requested damages.

The Jedi appealed the ruling, which was affirmed by the Imperial Appellate Court, and finally petitioned the Imperial Supreme Court. The Imperial Supreme Court reversed the decision, and held in favor of the Jedi. They reasoned that allowing Imperial courts to apply Imperial common law in cases with only planetary issues created a loophole to the prohibition of forum shopping. Under the law as it was, anyone (like Ponda) could use diversity of citizenship as a means of avoiding bringing suit in a planetary court. They pointed to an earlier case (Black & White AT-ATs v Brown & Yellow AT-ATs), where an AT-AT rental company actually moved to a different planet in order to meet the requirements of diversity of citizenship and avoid planetary law. Based on that negative precedent, the Imperial Supreme Court reversed, and held that Imperial courts were hereinafter required to apply both planetary statutes AND planetary case law when deciding diversity of citizenship cases.

The Trial of Han Solo

This comes on recommendation from our friend Andy E., after seeing how great a fit it was, we had no choice but to post it. This site had utterly no hand in making this, but it's grand. Just grand.

Vocabulary of the Law: Desultory- (Used in United States v. Hamilton, United States District Court of the District of Columbia, 1960)

Desultory- Lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm. (Oxford English Dictionary)

(as used in the majority opinion)-

"[The defendant and the deceased] played several games of pool. They imbibed intoxicating beverages in the rear of the establishment, and they also carried on desultory conversations. There was an exchange of banter between the deceased and the defendant, which developed into an argument, and finally into an acrimonious quarrel..."
United States v. Hamilton (1960)

Ponda Baba and his close chum and drinking buddy Dr. Evazan were enjoying a relaxing afternoon in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley listening to the house band Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, carrying on desultory conversation and recanting of old stories with their fellow patrons. A young human pulled up to the bar and knocked Ponda Baba's drink over without apologizing, Ponda Baba recognized that a "party foul" had occurred and wished to point out to the young human, that knocking over drinks without apologizing wasn't just cool, it could be dangerous in certain contexts. At that point, Evazan took over and blew the whole thing way out of proportion, leading to a long and awkward trip between Ponda Baba and Evazan on the way to the medical droid station down the alleyway.

Schwartzreich v. Bauman Basch, Inc.- (Supreme Court of New York, 1921)

Jabba the Hutt, frustrated by a certain smuggler's ongoing debt, employed the intergalactic bounty hunting services of Boba Fett. Jabba, following the the underworld's news feeds, suspected that Solo would likely head towards the Cloud City. Jabba then had Bib Fortuna write up a lengthy contract regarding the bounty on Solo. The terms of the contract stipulated that Fett was to travel to the Outer Rim in his hunt for the elusive Solo, and upon his capture was to immediately return to Tatooine. Fett signed the contract and proceeded to Slave I to begin fulfilling his obligations under the contract.

Along the way, Fett was summoned by Darth Vader and amongst his bounty hunting peers aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor, was given additional (ie, superior) monetary consideration for the capture of Solo. While Jabba promised a healthy bounty, Vader assured the same bounty and that he would surrender his hypothetically unending legal right to force choke Fett at any time. Fett then hailed Jabba over comscan, informing him of the new arrangement with Vader. Jabba offered to increase the bounty, and the two formed a new contract, which Fortuna forwarded to Fett over comscan.

Soon after, Fett was able to capture Solo on the Cloud City of Bespin, and began his return transit to Tatooine, but did not contact Jabba to inform him of the news. In the interim, Jabba realized that Fett simply could not be trusted to fulfill duties under the contract, and contracted Dengar to do the job for less. Just as Slave I returned to Tatooine orbit, Jabba transmitted the news to Fett, and summarily refused to pay Fett the bounty.

Fett sued for breach of contract, with the bounty as expectation damages. Jabba argued that the second contract with Fett was a coercive contract for a pre-existing duty to perform. Fett argued that he and Jabba had mutually consented to terminate the original before enacting the latter contract, and the court agreed. Stating that the prior contract had been properly rescinded, and a new one established in its place, Fett then received his well earned bounty and returned to Bespin for another session...

Hammer v. Dagenhart- (US Supreme Court, 1918)

Lando Calrissian, without doubt the classiest administrator the Bespin Cloud City had ever known, was in a pickle. Lando had just recently been able to bring the tibanna gas mining operation back up to profitable levels through the use of incredibly inexpensive ugnaught labor. The tibanna gas mined by the ugnaught mining crews and frozen in carbonite by ugnaught carbonite tech crews was distributed throughout the galaxy for use in developing hyperdrive and weapon technology. While some had murmured that the 18+ hour shifts and dangerous working conditions the ugnaughts toiled under were immoral, Calrissian easily shrugged off these complaints, knowing full well that the ugnaughts were a hardy, hard-working race. Besides, production was high and the credits were pouring into the station like a Naboo waterfall.

The Galactic Imperial Senate (just before its forceful dissolution) caught wind of this activity, as well as other such clandestine uses of diminutive species labor in the Outer Rim, and fearing a theoretical "race to the bottom" in labor standards throughout the galaxy, raised legislation that set wage levels and affixed limits on the amount of work hours. Under this legislation, any goods constructed from such "scoundrel-esque" and "rogue-ish" uses of labor could be barred from entering interplanetary commerce.

Calrissian, seeing the writing on the wall, had his chief administrator and legal advisor, Lobot, file an injunctive complaint with the Imperial Court, stating that the Imperial Senate had no power to create such legislation, that any supposedly applicable interplanetary commerce clause under the Old Republic constitution would be inapplicable to the Bespin Cloud City's mining activities; that mining as a purely local activity is too indirectly related to interplanetary commerce to fall under the Old Republic Senate's classic means of enacting legislation. The complaint further suggested that Imperial Senate's invocation of the almost ancient clause was merely a "pretext" for enacting legislation affecting purely planetary issues, a firm violation of the Cloud City's sovereignty.

The Imperial Court agreed, stating that the tibanna gas in question was not a harmful item that could be kept out of interplanetary commerce, simply the nature of the gas' mining and manufacturing was offensive to the Imperial Senate. As mining, manufacturing, hydrofarming and other forms of production were all planetary issues out of the Empire's hands (at the time), the Court struck down the legislation, allowing Calrissian's callous use of ugnaught labor to continue. Little did the Imperial Court know however, that by striking down the Imperial Senate's legislation that they had only made it more powerful then they could even imagine... [See, US v. Darby- (US Supreme Court, 1944)]