Essay Instructions: Using only Westlaw, prepare five case briefs. Each case brief is to be one page, total pages will be five.
Case briefs must not exceed one typewritten page in length with top, bottom and side margins set at 1 inch. Font size cannot be less than 11.
The five cases that are to be used are; 1) 253 So.2d 923.In re Estate of Elsie Dennis Maynard, Deceased. RalphBrittingham et al., Appellants, v. Lois D. Jarvis et al., Appellees.
2) 228 III.App.3d 753,593 N.E.2d 583, 170 III.Dec. 694. Saul Azar, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Old Willow Falls Condominium Association, Defendant-Appellee.
3) 122 Misc.2d 468, 471 N.Y.S.2d 764. Thomas A. Andrews, et al., Plaintiff, V. Laura Steinberg, Defendant.
4) 250 S.W.2d 964. Villmer et ux. V. Household Plastics Co. et al.
5) 104 Hawai’i 267, 88 P.3d 202. Supreme Court of Hawai’i. In the Matter of Trust Created Under the Will Dated November 15, 1917 Of Emanuel S. Cunha, Deceased. V. Hawaiian Trust Company, Ltd., Respondent-Appellant.
The following format must be used when preparing the case briefs.
A case brief should always begin with the correct citation, which includes the case name, the reporter where it can be found, and the date the case was decided, e.g., Dalk v. Allen, 774 So.2d 787 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000). So.2d (Southern Second) is the regional reporter where the case is found. Other regional reporters include Pacific, Northwestern, Northeastern, Southeastern and Atlantic. The “Second” is the second series. The original was just “Southern”. There is now a Southern Third (So.3d). 774 is the volume, and 787 is the page in volume 774 where the case begins. The court is the Florida 5th District Court of Appeals, and the case was decided in 2000. If it was a Florida Supreme Court case, “5th DCA” would not be present. The parenthesis would only include (Fla. 2000).
Facts: A court opinion includes both substantive and procedural facts. Substantive facts include what occurred to cause one party to file a lawsuit against another, or for a party to be charged with a crime, e.g., “John Smith became angry at Joe Brown when he discovered that Brown vandalized his car. Smith hit Brown with his fist, knocking him to the ground. Brown hit his head on the cement floor and died as a result of his injuries.” Procedural facts include what happened at the lower court, e.g., “Smith was found guilty of murder and appealed his conviction”, or “the (number) district court of appeals affirmed the guilty verdict, and Smith appealed to the Florida Supreme Court”, etc. Both substantive and procedural facts must be included. Facts should not include what the decision was at this court. That will be in the Holding below.
NOTE: The facts section should only include those that were relevant to the court’s decision. In other words, a case brief should not include, “the defendant’s eyes were blue”, if the court didn’t consider the color of the defendant’s eyes in making its decision.
Consider the following question when writing the facts section of the case briefs: Will the reader understand what the case is about, and why it is being appealed? If the answer is no, they must rewrite the facts section until they can answer the question in the affirmative. Remember that the case briefs are telling the reader a story, which must be complete so as not to leave the reader guessing.
Issue: Published cases are generally appellate, which means they were appealed from a lower court, such as the trial court, or a lower appellate court. Therefore, the issue section of a case brief should begin with a question that centers around what happened in the lower court.
The following question must be answered in the Issue section of a case brief. “Why was this case appealed?” The short answer is because the person who lost in the lower court did not like the decision.
That leads into the next question. “Does the person who lost at the lower court believe an error was made by that court?” Of course, the answer is always yes. Therefore, since the individual who lost at the lower court believed that court made a mistake, the issue should always begin with: “Did the lower court err”, or “Did the lower court abuse its discretion”, by deciding the way it did and why?
Do not cut off the issue prematurely. Following are two issues. The first one is unacceptable because it is incomplete. It does not tell the full story. The second is acceptable.
1. Did the lower court err in denying Rollin’s motion in limine and admitting certain items into evidence?
The issue is unacceptable because it is incomplete, i.e., what items were admitted into evidence? The following is correct:
2. Did the lower court err in denying Rollin’s motion in limine and admitting certain items into evidence, namely, the results of tests performed on his blood samples, three glass pipes found in his vehicle, and the green pills found at the scene?
Law: The law (rule of law) section of the case brief requires the individual to determine what law, e.g., cases, statutes, etc., the court used in making its decision. It is generally very short and includes the citation of the law, plus a brief explanation of what that law says, addressing the issues previously stated.
NOTE: Law includes cases, statutes, constitutions, administrative rulings, etc. The court may use one case, or it could use only one statute, or it could use one case and one statute, etc. Whatever it uses will be clearly cited in the case.
Make sure when preparing the case briefs that it is for somebody to read, and it is a benefit to the reader to have the cite of all relevant authority the court used in making its decision readily available. Although the reader of the case brief may eventually want (need) to read the case in its entirety, including the relevant law in the case brief enables the reader to locate that authority without first having to read the case, an obvious time saver.
The following is a very good example of how the law section of the case brief should be prepared. The case is Dalk v. Allen, 774 So.2d 787 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000).
Facts: Personal representative of estate, who was also a beneficiary in contested will, sought to admit will to probate. The Circuit Court found that will was invalid due to a lack of the testator’s signature, but imposed a constructive trust in favor of the beneficiaries named in the will. Contestant appealed.
Issue: Did the lower court err when it: (1) ruled that the will was invalid because of the lack of the testator’s signature, and; (2) when it imposed a constructive trust in place of the invalid will?
Law: In order to make a valid will, the testator must strictly comply with the provisions for formal execution, section 732.502, Florida Statutes (1999), which, among other things, requires that every will be signed at the end or that the testator’s name be subscribed at the end of the will by some other person in the testator’s presence and at his direction. In In re Estate of Tolin, 622 So.2d 988 (Fla.1993), the court imposed a constructive trust on the assets of a decedent’s estate in favor of the beneficiary of decedent’s will after decedent destroyed a copy of a codicil to that will, believing it to be the original. The Supreme Court held that section 732.506, Revocation by Act, had not been complied with, making the revocation ineffective. However, it imposed a constructive trust to prevent unjust enrichment and acknowledged that no fraud was involved.
Note that applicable statutes and a relevant case were cited, with a brief explanation of what the statutes and case said, rather than just citing the statute and case. This permits the reader to tie the facts and issue together with the court’s reasoning.
Rationale (Reasoning):This section requires the student to articulate why the court ruled the way it did. That, in turn, provides them with some insight about how that court, and lower courts within its jurisdiction, will decide future cases with similar facts.
Continuing with Dalk v. Allen,:
Reasoning: The will was not signed by the decedent and, thus, not properly executed in accordance with the requirements of section 732.502, Florida Statutes. The will is deemed invalid on those grounds. There is no similarity between the “unique” facts in Tolin and those here. Ordering a constructive trust here would, in effect, be validating an invalid will, and there is no case law found which supports such result.
This example is very good at addressing why the court ruled the way it did in this case. It is clear and concise, providing the reader with an excellent synopsis of the court’s rationale. Note that the example does not say, “The court ruled this way, or the court said that”. It is the court speaking, in the first person. If somebody named Bob was asked to explain why he did what he did, he would not say, “Bob decided that because…” He would say, “I decided that because…”
Holding: This part of the case brief is generally very short. It could be one or two words, e.g., affirmed, reversed, remanded, etc. It is merely a restatement of the court’s disposition of the case, i.e., its answer to the question(s) stated in the issue section of the case brief. The following is the holding in the Dalk case. It is generally longer than normal because there were several things decided.
Holding: Reversed and remanded to the trial court with directions to consider the counter petition for intestate administration.
