Diversity amount in controversy ruling [US SC] News
Diversity amount in controversy ruling [US SC]

Exxon Mobil Corp v. Allapattah Services and Ortega v. Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Supreme Court of the United States, June 23, 2005 [ruling 5-4 that a rule requiring a federal court claim in a diversity action to be worth $75,000 is satisfied where one party has that much at stake, even when other parties to the claim do not]. Excerpt from the opinion, by Justice Kennedy:

We hold that, where the other elements of jurisdiction are present and at least one named plaintiff in the action satisfies the amount-in-controversy requirement, §1367 does authorize supplemental jurisdiction over the claims of other plaintiffs in the same Article III case or controversy, even if those claims are for less than the jurisdictional amount specified in the statute setting forth the requirements for diversity jurisdiction.

Read the full text of the opinion here [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Standard Oil incorporated

On January 10, 1870, John Davison Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil. Rockefeller's corporation would grow to achieve a virtual monopoly over oil production in the United States. Standard Oil's dominance lasted until the corporation was split into 34 separate companies in 1911 after the Supreme Court found the company in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The rise of Standard Oil made Rockefeller America's first billionaire and eventually the richest man in the world. Read the text of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey vs. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1910).