Today in history: April 25

On this date in 1938, the United States Supreme Court shocked just about everyone with the release of Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, a decision that wiped nearly 100 years of federal common law off the books and became a permanent fixture of the U.S. civil procedure casebook.

Why mention it on a blog related to contract law?  Because the lawyer who lost the case (and who saw his law firm go out of business with the loss of the contingent fee) was 24-year-old Aaron L. Danzig, who had graduated from law school only two years earlier.  He's best known in contract law circles as the father of future Stanford Contracts tprof (and, later, my partner at Latham & Watkins partner and Secretary of the Navy) Richard Danzig, author of The Capability Problem in Contract Law.

[Frank Snyder]