Erie Railroad v. Tompkins · ¶9

“the true interpretation of the thirty-fourth section limited its application to state laws strictly local, that is to say, to the positive statutes of the state, and the construction thereof adopted by the local tribunals, and to rights and titles to things having a permanent locality, such as the rights and titles to real estate, and other matters immovable and intraterritorial in their nature and character. It never has been supposed by us, that the section did apply, or was intended to apply, to questions of a more general nature, not at all dependent upon local statutes or local usages of a fixed and permanent operation, as, for example, to the construction of ordinary contracts or other written instruments, and especially to questions of general commerbial law, where the state tribunals are called upon to perform the like functions as ourselves, that is, to' ascertain upon general…

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 304, at 64 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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