Week Five, Part 3 - CivPro: Brain Cramp

In CivPro, Professor Joseph P. Bauer introduces a new topic, “long-arm jurisdiction” – the ability of local courts to hear and determine cases involving non-resident defendants. As we discuss Burger King v Rudzewicz, I witness my first Socratic fatality.

Bauer reviews the facts of the 1985 Supreme Court case. Rudzewics was an accountant who lived in Michigan. He contracted with Burger King, a Florida corporation, for a franchise in his home state. When the restaurant didn't do well, Rudzewics fell behind on his rent payments. Burger King sued him in Florida.

Professor Bauer is his normal impeccable self, dressed in a three piece suit. The creases of his pant legs break at just the right spot above his tassled loafers. He calls on a girl in the second row. "Where did Burger King sue, Miss Powlowski?

"In district court."

"That we know,” Bauer barks. “Which district court, Miss Powlowski? You have two choices."

"Florida district court?"

"Which district court in Florida? Federal or state."

"State district court."

"Guess again, Miss Powlowski." The class laughs.

She gets it right, and Bauer writes "fed" on the board.

He asks her about the district court's ruling. It had rejected the Rudzewics’ challenge to personal jurisdiction, and held that Burger King could sue him in Florida.

Powlowski is waaay off in her answer.

Bauer questions her about the appellate court's ruling.

Powlowski is wrong again.

"Did you brief this case?" Bauer asked, his tone disbelieving.

Powlowski holds up a sheet of paper.

That's worse, I think, getting the wrong answers when you did the work.

Bauer tells Powlowski to open her casebook. He points her to the page 353.

"Now what was it that the court ruled?" Bauer asks.

Again she gets the answer wrong, although I don’t blame her. The case is confusing. Justice Brennan, who delivered the opinion of the court, quotes both the trial court and the appellate court.

I think of the book One L. In it, author Scott Turow relates how the Harvard Law profs terrorized and embarrassed the first-year students.

Bauer, however, backs off. Maybe he’s evolved beyond Cambridge past. "I'm sure I have you all flustered now,” he says to Ms. Powlowski. “Let me go to someone else before I give you apoplexy."

Bauer picks another name. It’s so close to mine that my testicles constrict, like I’ve jumped in cold water.

Bauer makes a point about interlocutory appeals, then comes back to Powlowski. He asks her a few easy questions; “marshmallows” he calls them. Powlowski recovers her dignity.

Class ends and we exit. John Edgar rolls up beside me in his wheelchair.

“Glad he didn’t call on me,” he says. “My brief was a freakin’ joke.”

“That makes two of us,” I say. “It feels like I’ve been behind from day one.”

Instead of lunch, I hurry to the third floor atrium and re-brief my cases for Crim.

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