MBE flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Complete diversity

For diversity jurisdiction, no plaintiff may share state citizenship with any defendant; minimal diversity is insufficient, and citizenship is determined at filing.

Amount in controversy

Diversity jurisdiction requires the amount in controversy to exceed $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs; the plaintiff's good-faith claim generally controls unless legally impossible.

Erie doctrine

In diversity cases, federal courts apply state substantive law and federal procedural law; a valid Federal Rule governs if it is arguably procedural and within the Rules Enabling Act.

Claim preclusion

A final judgment on the merits bars a later suit on the same claim by the same parties or their privies, including claims that could have been raised.

Removal deadline

A defendant generally must file a notice of removal within 30 days after receiving the initial pleading; diversity removal also requires that no properly joined defendant is a citizen of the forum state.

Standing injury in fact

Constitutional standing requires a concrete and particularized injury that is actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical, plus causation and redressability.

Dormant Commerce Clause

State laws discriminating against interstate commerce are presumptively invalid unless they serve a legitimate local purpose that cannot be achieved by reasonable nondiscriminatory means.

Strict scrutiny

Content-based speech regulations and fundamental-right or suspect-class classifications must serve a compelling government interest and be narrowly tailored to be the least restrictive means.

State action doctrine

The Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection and due process guarantees generally require government action; private conduct is not actionable unless sufficiently entangled with the state.

Regulatory taking

A regulation that denies all economically beneficial use is a per se taking; otherwise courts weigh economic impact, investment-backed expectations, and character of the government action.

UCC firm offer

A merchant's signed writing that gives assurance an offer will be held open is irrevocable without consideration for the stated time or a reasonable time, up to three months.

Statute of Frauds categories

Writing is required for promises involving marriage, performance over one year, land, executor liability, surety, and sale of goods of $500 or more.

Perfect tender rule

Under UCC Article 2, the seller must deliver goods and tender exactly conforming to the contract; if not, buyer may reject, subject to seller's right to cure.

Expectation damages

Contract damages place the injured party in the position performance would have produced, including lost profits, but exclude damages not foreseeable at contract formation.

Felony murder

A killing committed during an inherently dangerous felony, such as burglary, robbery, rape, or arson, is murder; liability is limited by proximate cause and agency rules.

Miranda custody

Miranda warnings are required before custodial interrogation; custody exists when a reasonable person would not feel free to leave, and interrogation includes words likely to elicit incriminating responses.

Larceny elements

Larceny is the trespassory taking and carrying away of another's personal property with intent to permanently deprive; taking from possession, not mere custody, is required.

Terry stop

Police may briefly detain a person based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and may frisk for weapons if they reasonably suspect the person is armed and dangerous.

Attempt substantial step

Attempt requires intent to commit the target crime plus an act constituting a substantial step strongly corroborative of that intent; mere preparation is insufficient.

Hearsay definition

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted; statements offered for effect on the listener or as verbal acts are nonhearsay.

Excited utterance

A statement relating to a startling event, made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement, is admissible hearsay regardless of declarant availability.

MIMIC character evidence

In criminal cases, evidence of prior acts may be admitted for motive, intent, absence of mistake, identity, or common plan, but not to prove propensity.

Best evidence rule

An original writing, recording, or photograph is required to prove its content, unless an exception such as lost originals or collateral matter applies.

Confrontation testimonial

Testimonial hearsay is inadmissible unless the declarant is unavailable and the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine, absent forfeiture.

Joint tenancy unities

Joint tenants hold equal shares with right of survivorship and must satisfy the four unities of time, title, interest, and possession; severance destroys survivorship.

Adverse possession elements

Title by adverse possession requires actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous possession that is hostile to the owner for the statutory period.

Recording act BFP

A bona fide purchaser for value without notice of a prior interest prevails under notice and race-notice statutes; race statutes protect the first to record regardless of notice.

Covenant running with land

A real covenant binds successors when there is writing, intent, touch and concern, horizontal and vertical privity, and notice; equitable servitudes require no privity for injunction.

Res ipsa loquitur

Negligence may be inferred when the injury-causing accident is of a kind that ordinarily does not occur without negligence, caused by an instrumentality in defendant's exclusive control.

Proximate cause

Proximate cause requires that the harm be a foreseeable result of the defendant's negligence; unforeseeable intervening causes supersede, while foreseeable negligence or rescue attempts do not.

Products strict liability

A seller of a defective product is strictly liable for physical harm if the defect existed when sold and made the product unreasonably dangerous, and the plaintiff was a foreseeable user.

Defamation actual malice

A public official or public figure must prove the defendant made a defamatory statement with knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth.