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Law Outlines Civil Procedure Outlines

Summary Judgment Before Trial Outline

Updated Summary Judgment Before Trial Notes

Civil Procedure Outlines

Civil Procedure

Approximately 89 pages

Detailed outline and notes from a 1L Civil Procedure class. Includes detailed case summaries, charts and diagrams where appropriate, and the professor's policy discussions interspersed throughout. Would be very helpful for any 1L tackling Civ Pro for the first time....

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Civil Procedure Outlines. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Summary Judgment before Trial

Motion to Dismiss v. Motion for Summary Judgment

Rule 12(b)(6) Rule 56
Title Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim upon which Relief may be Granted Motion for Summary Judgment
Focus Legal Issue Material Facts
Question Even if all facts in the complaint are true, is there a legal basis for relief? Are there any issues of material fact that would prevent judgment as a matter of law?
Facts Liberally construed towards nonmovant, accepts all alleged facts as true Movant must prove there are no issues of fact (56(c)); nonmovant may dispute by introducing evidence (56(e))

Evidence

Considered

Only the complaint

Affidavits, depos, answers to interrogatories, admissions, admissible documents. Pleadings not considered because they are allegations.

May include evidence that would not be admissible at trial, but must show there would be admissible evidence (i.e., an affidavit of someone who would testify at trial).

  1. FRCP 56: Summary Judgment

    1. focuses on the facts

    2. Goal to resolve disputes without enough evidence to send to jury (mid 20th century invention)

  1. Jury decision in civil trial based on preponderance of evidence, about 51%

  2. Malice standard is stronger - clear and convincing, about 66%

    1. SJ in defamation cases - proof of malice must be clear & convincing to survive SJ

      1. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby (US 1986) p. 469 (full case at supp. p.16)

        1. tractor beam idea - burden of persuasion used at trial affects the burden of production

          1. moves over jury land because of increased burden of persuasion in defamation cases

        2. Standard of proof in SJ is identical to standard of proof for a directed verdict, Rule 50(a).

        3. Brennan dissent - confuses roles of trial judge & jury; should only need prima facie case to get to jury

  3. Plaintiffs want jury land-> 20-80%

  4. Proponent is whoever bears burden of persuasion - shifts based on party presenting evidence

FRCP 56 – Summary Judgment:

  1. 56(a) - SJ shall be granted when there are no disputed issues of material fact and movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law

  2. 56(b) - may file SJ motion anytime until 30 days after end of discovery

  3. 56(c) - Procedure

    1. 56(c)(1) - party moving for SJ must support motion with evidence or point to lack of evidence of a genuine issue of fact

    2. 56(c)(2) - a party may object that evidence is inadmissible

      1. Just demeanor evidence is usually not enough to get to jury land, but SJ is improper when credibility is a genuine issue.

        1. Arnstein v. Porter (2nd Cir. 1946) p. 455

          1. P sued Cole Porter for copyright infringement on songs; complaint was farfetched, but court listened to the songs and found enough similarity to go to the jury on his credibility.

    3. 56(c)(3)- court may consider other evidence in the record

    4. 56(c)(4) -affidavits must be made on personal knowledge, and set out facts admissible in evidence

      1. Dyer v. MacDougall (2nd Cir. 1952) p.458

        1. P accused Ds of libel and slander, but all the Ds denied saying the slanderous things. P's evidence was his inadmissible affidavits. Judge offered P the time to take depositions, but when P did not do so, judge granted SJ. P need only have offered conflicting evidence to defeat SJ motion.

  4. 56(d) -when facts to dispute a motion for SJ are unavailable

    1. 56(d)(1) - court may defer or deny motion

    2. 56(d)(2) - court may give nonmovant time to gather...

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