Swift v. Tyson

Swift v. Tyson
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided January 25, 1842
Full case name	John Swift v. George W. Tyson
Citations	41 U.S. 1 (more) 16 Pet. 1; 10 L. Ed. 865; 1842 U.S. LEXIS 345
Case history
Prior	On a certificate of division from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York
Holding
Federal courts were to apply state statutory law, but not common law, to state cases.
Court membership
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney Associate Justices Joseph Story · Smith Thompson John McLean · Henry Baldwin James M. Wayne · John Catron John McKinley · Peter V. Daniel
Case opinions
Majority	Story, joined by unanimous
Concur/dissent	Catron
Overruled by
Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938).

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Swift v. Tyson

Swift v. Tyson, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 1 (1842), was a case brought in diversity in the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York on a bill of exchange accepted in New York in which the Supreme Court of the United States determined that United States federal courts that heard cases brought under their diversity jurisdiction under the Judiciary Act of 1789 must apply statutory state laws when the state legislatures in question had spoken on the issue, but did not have to apply the state's common law if the state legislatures had not spoken on the issue.^[1]

The ruling meant that the federal courts that decided matters not specifically addressed by the state legislature had the authority to develop a federal general common law.

In 1938, this decision was overruled by Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, which dispensed with the concept of federal general common law in the United States.