MN Bar cheat sheet

Subject-matter jurisdiction: federal question under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (well-pleaded complaint rule); diversity under § 1332 requires complete diversity and amount in controversy exceeding $75,000.

Personal jurisdiction: minimum contacts (International Shoe) plus fair play and substantial justice; general jurisdiction where defendant is 'at home' (Goodyear, Daimler); specific jurisdiction requires suit-related contacts (Bristol-Myers Squibb).

Venue: proper in district where any defendant resides (if all reside in same state), where substantial events occurred, or where any defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction if no other district is proper (28 U.S.C. § 1391).

Erie doctrine: in diversity cases, federal courts apply state substantive law (including state statutes of limitations and conflicts rules) and federal procedural law (Hanna; Byrd).

Pleadings: federal notice pleading under Rule 8(a); plausibility standard for claims (Twombly, Iqbal); Rule 9(b) requires particularity for fraud.

Joinder: compulsory counterclaims (Rule 13(a)) arise from same transaction or occurrence; permissive counterclaims require independent jurisdiction; Rule 19 necessary parties; Rule 20 permissive joinder.

Discovery: mandatory initial disclosures (Rule 26(a)); scope includes any nonprivileged matter relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case (Rule 26(b)(1)).

Summary judgment: granted when no genuine dispute of material fact and movant entitled to judgment as a matter of law (Rule 56); movant must show absence of evidence for nonmovant's case (Celotex).

Preclusion: claim preclusion requires final judgment on merits, same parties or privies, and same claim; issue preclusion requires actually litigated and necessarily decided issue.

Standing: injury in fact (concrete and particularized), causation, and redressability; third-party standing requires close relationship and hindrance; taxpayer standing generally barred except Establishment Clause expenditures (Flast).

State action doctrine: Constitution applies to government actors; private conduct generally not constrained unless significant state involvement (public function, entanglement, encouragement).

Due process: procedural due process requires notice and opportunity to be heard (Mathews v. Eldridge balancing); substantive due process protects fundamental rights (strict scrutiny) and economic liberties (rational basis).

Equal protection: suspect classifications (race, national origin, religion, alienage) get strict scrutiny; gender and illegitimacy get intermediate scrutiny; all else rational basis.

First Amendment speech: content-based restrictions get strict scrutiny; content-neutral time, place, manner restrictions must be narrowly tailored to significant government interest and leave open ample alternatives.

Dormant Commerce Clause: state law discriminating against interstate commerce is per se invalid unless legitimate local purpose and no reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives; nondiscriminatory laws balance burdens and benefits (Pike).

Takings: physical occupation is per se taking; regulatory taking under Penn Central factors (economic impact, investment-backed expectations, character of government action); Lucas categorical taking for denial of all economically viable use.

Presidential powers: Youngstown framework-express/implied authorization (highest), zone of twilight (congressional silence), contrary to Congress (lowest).

UCC Article 2 applies to transactions in goods; common law governs services, real estate, and intangible rights; predominant purpose test for mixed contracts.

Formation: UCC requires only intent to make a contract and a reasonably certain basis for remedy; open price, quantity, and delivery terms may be filled by gap-fillers; quantity term must be stated.

Firm offer rule: merchant's signed written offer to buy or sell goods is irrevocable for the time stated or a reasonable time, not to exceed three months (UCC § 2-205).

Acceptance: UCC § 2-206 permits acceptance in any reasonable manner; acceptance with different or additional terms under § 2-207-between merchants, additional terms become part of contract unless materially alter, objected to, or offer limited.

Statute of frauds: sale of goods over $500 requires writing sufficient to indicate contract and signed by party to be charged; merchant confirmation rule (§ 2-201(2)) binds recipient who fails to object within 10 days.

Perfect tender rule (UCC § 2-601): buyer may reject goods if they fail in any respect; exceptions: installment contracts (§ 2-612) and seller's right to cure (§ 2-508).

Risk of loss: without breach, risk passes according to delivery terms (shipment vs. destination); if seller breaches, risk remains on seller to extent of any defect (UCC § 2-510).

Remedies: buyer's cover damages (§ 2-712), market price damages (§ 2-713), incidental and consequential damages; seller's resale (§ 2-706) and market formula (§ 2-708); lost profits for lost volume sellers (§ 2-708(2)).

Anticipatory repudiation: aggrieved party may await performance or resort to remedy; retraction allowed until material change or reliance (UCC § 2-611).

Fourth Amendment: reasonableness standard; warrant requires probable cause and particularity; exceptions include search incident to arrest, automobile, plain view, exigent circumstances, consent, inventory, and Terry stop-and-frisk (reasonable suspicion).

Exclusionary rule: evidence obtained in violation of Fourth Amendment inadmissible; exceptions: good faith, inevitable discovery, independent source, attenuation, impeachment.

Fifth Amendment: privilege against self-incrimination applies to testimonial compulsion; Miranda warnings required for custodial interrogation; voluntariness required for confessions.

Sixth Amendment: right to counsel attaches at critical stages after formal charges (Massiah); right to jury trial for serious offenses (not petty); confrontation clause (Crawford).

Criminal law: actus reus and mens rea (purpose, knowledge, recklessness, negligence); strict liability offenses require no mens rea.

Homicide: murder requires malice aforethought (intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, depraved heart, felony murder); manslaughter is unlawful killing without malice (voluntary-heat of passion; involuntary-criminal negligence).

Defenses: self-defense (reasonable belief in imminent unlawful force, proportional); defense of habitation; duress; necessity; insanity (M'Naghten, irresistible impulse, ALI); intoxication (specific intent only).

Attempt: specific intent to commit crime plus substantial step beyond mere preparation; impossibility no defense to attempt if intent and substantial step.

Conspiracy: agreement between two or more to commit unlawful act; overt act required under federal law; Pinkerton liability for substantive crimes committed by co-conspirators in furtherance and reasonably foreseeable.

Relevance: evidence having any tendency to make a fact more or less probable; relevant evidence may be excluded if probative value substantially outweighed by danger of unfair prejudice, confusion, or waste of time (Rule 403).

Character evidence: prohibited to prove conduct in civil cases; in criminal cases, defendant may offer character for pertinent trait, prosecution may rebut; evidence of other crimes admissible for MIMIC (motive, intent, mistake, identity, common plan) purposes.

Hearsay: out-of-court statement offered for truth of matter asserted; exclusions: prior statements under oath, consistent statements, inconsistent statements, identifications; exemptions: party-opponent, adoptive admission, co-conspirator statements.

Hearsay exceptions (declarant availability immaterial): present sense impression, excited utterance, then-existing condition, medical diagnosis/treatment, recorded recollection, business records, public records, ancient documents, learned treatises.

Confrontation Clause (Crawford): testimonial hearsay inadmissible unless declarant unavailable and defendant had prior opportunity to cross-examine; nontestimonial hearsay governed by reliability (Ohio v. Roberts).

Privileges: attorney-client (confidential communications for legal advice), physician-patient, psychotherapist-patient (Jaffee), spousal (confidential marital communications and testimonial privilege); crime-fraud exception.

Witness impeachment: bias, contradiction, prior inconsistent statements, reputation for truthfulness, criminal convictions (felony or dishonesty), specific instances of conduct (limited).

Authentication: evidence sufficient to support finding that item is what proponent claims; self-authenticating documents (Rule 902); chain of custody for fungible items.

Best evidence rule: original writing required to prove content of writing unless excused; applies only when content is in issue.

Estates: fee simple absolute, fee tail, life estate, fee simple determinable (possibility of reverter), fee simple subject to condition subsequent (right of entry), fee simple subject to executory limitation.

Concurrent estates: joint tenancy requires four unities (time, title, interest, possession) and right of survivorship; tenancy in common has no survivorship; tenancy by the entirety for married couples.

Landlord-tenant: leasehold estates (term of years, periodic tenancy, tenancy at will, tenancy at sufferance); implied warranty of habitability for residential leases; constructive eviction.

Easements: express, implied, prescriptive, necessity; appurtenant vs. in gross; termination by merger, release, abandonment, prescription, estoppel.

Covenants and equitable servitudes: real covenants require writing, intent, touch and concern, privity (horizontal and vertical), notice; equitable servitudes require intent, touch and concern, notice, and remedy at law inadequate.

Recording acts: race, notice, race-notice; shelter rule; wild deed; inquiry notice; marketable title acts.

Mortgages: lien theory vs. title theory; foreclosure; deed in lieu; deficiency judgment; priority of liens.

Zoning: nonconforming uses; variances (use and area); special exceptions; spot zoning; vested rights.

Adverse possession: actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, hostile for statutory period; tacking; color of title.

Intentional torts: battery (harmful/offensive contact), assault (apprehension of imminent battery), false imprisonment (confinement), trespass to land, trespass to chattels, conversion; defenses: consent, self-defense, defense of others, necessity.

Negligence: duty, breach, causation (actual and proximate), damages; standard of care: reasonable person, professionals (custom), children (reasonable child of like age, intelligence, experience), landowners (trespasser, licensee, invitee).

Premises liability: trespasser-no duty except refrain from willful/wanton harm; licensee-warn of known dangerous conditions; invitee-reasonable care to inspect and warn.

Strict liability: abnormally dangerous activities (Rylands v. Fletcher factors), animals (wild animals and known dangerous domestic animals), products liability (manufacturing defect, design defect, warning defect).

Products liability: commercial seller liable for defective product causing harm; strict liability requires defect and causation; defenses: misuse, assumption of risk, comparative fault (varies).

Defamation: defamatory statement, publication, damages (unless per se), fault (public figure-actual malice; private figure-negligence for actual damages); constitutional privileges.

Invasion of privacy: appropriation, intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light; defenses: consent, truth, privilege.

Nuisance: private nuisance (substantial, unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment); public nuisance (unreasonable interference with right common to public); remedies: injunction, damages.

Damages: compensatory (economic and noneconomic), punitive (gross negligence or intentional), nominal; mitigation of damages; collateral source rule.

Agency: fiduciary relationship; agent's duties: loyalty, obedience, reasonable care; principal's duties: compensation, reimbursement, indemnification; termination by act of parties, operation of law, or notice.

Principal's liability: disclosed principal liable on authorized contracts; undisclosed principal liable; agent liable if principal undisclosed or agent exceeds authority; apparent authority requires manifestation by principal and reliance by third party.

Partnership: general partnership-all partners liable; limited partnership-limited partners not liable beyond contribution; limited liability partnership-all partners limited liability; fiduciary duties among partners.

Corporations: separate legal entity; limited liability for shareholders; piercing the corporate veil for fraud, alter ego, undercapitalization; directors owe duty of care and loyalty (business judgment rule).

Shareholder rights: vote, dividends, inspect books, sue derivatively (demand requirement), preemptive rights (if provided); close corporation restrictions.

Securities law: Securities Act of 1933 registration and prospectus for public offerings; Exchange Act of 1934 periodic reporting, proxy rules, Rule 10b-5 antifraud (material misrepresentation, scienter, reliance, damages).

LLCs: hybrid entity; members have limited liability; flexible management (member-managed or manager-managed); charging order as exclusive remedy; fiduciary duties may be modified in operating agreement.

Dissolution and winding up: partnership-dissolution triggers winding up; corporation-dissolution by board and shareholders; LLC-events in operating agreement; priorities for distribution.

Choice of law: traditional vested rights (lex loci delicti for torts, lex loci contractus for contracts); modern approaches: most significant relationship (Restatement Second), interest analysis, better law.

Domicile: physical presence plus intent to remain indefinitely; determines personal jurisdiction, taxation, and choice of law; corporation's domicile is state of incorporation and principal place of business.

Recognition of judgments: full faith and credit requires final judgment on merits by court with jurisdiction; defenses: lack of jurisdiction, fraud, public policy (limited).

Marriage validity: place of celebration governs; exceptions: polygamy, incest, same-sex marriage (Obergefell requires recognition).

Property: situs governs real property; tangible movables-law of situs at time of transaction; intangible property-law of state with most significant relationship.

Erie doctrine: federal court in diversity applies state substantive law, including conflict-of-laws rules; federal procedural rules apply (Hanna).

Foreign judgments: comity; defenses: lack of jurisdiction, fraud, public policy; Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act.

Choice-of-law clauses: generally enforceable unless contrary to fundamental public policy or no reasonable relationship; procedural vs. substantive characterization.

Marriage: requirements-license, solemnization, capacity (age, consent, no bigamy, no close blood relation); common law marriage recognized in some states; putative spouse doctrine.

Divorce: no-fault (irretrievable breakdown, incompatibility) and fault grounds; jurisdiction-residence requirement; full faith and credit for divorce decree if jurisdiction over parties.

Property division: equitable distribution (marital property vs. separate property); community property states-equal division; factors: duration, contributions, earning capacity.

Spousal support: alimony types (temporary, rehabilitative, permanent); factors: need, ability to pay, standard of living, duration; modification and termination upon remarriage or cohabitation.

Child custody: best interests of child standard; types: legal and physical, joint and sole; factors: stability, parental fitness, child's preference (if mature); UCCJEA for jurisdiction.

Child support: guidelines based on income shares or percentage of income; deviation factors; enforcement: wage withholding, contempt, criminal nonsupport; modification upon substantial change.

Paternity: presumption of legitimacy; blood tests; acknowledgment; rights of putative father (Stanley v. Illinois).

Adoption: termination of parental rights (voluntary or involuntary); best interests; consent requirements; open adoption agreements.

Domestic violence: protective orders; full faith and credit (VAWA); custody and support implications.

Intestate succession: spouse and descendants; per stirpes vs. per capita; advancements; simultaneous death; slayer statutes; disclaimer.

Wills: testamentary capacity (age, sound mind); formalities-writing, signature, two witnesses (attestation); holographic wills; nuncupative wills; codicils; integration; incorporation by reference; acts of independent significance.

Will contests: lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress, mistake; no-contest clauses; pretermitted heirs; omitted spouse/children.

Probate and nonprobate: probate assets vs. nonprobate (joint tenancy, life insurance, trusts, POD); creditor claims; abatement; ademption; lapse and anti-lapse statutes.

Trusts: elements-settlor, trustee, beneficiary, trust property, intent; types: express (private, charitable), resulting, constructive; spendthrift; discretionary; support; revocable vs. irrevocable.

Trustee duties: loyalty, prudence (Prudent Investor Rule), impartiality, account; powers; removal; breach and remedies.

Future interests: reversion, possibility of reverter, right of entry, remainder (vested, contingent), executory interest; Rule Against Perpetuities (lives in being plus 21 years; wait-and-see).

Fiduciary administration: inventory, accounting, distribution; principal and income; abatement; apportionment of taxes.

Estate taxes: federal estate tax (unified credit, portability); gift tax; generation-skipping transfer tax; basis step-up at death.

Attachment: value given, debtor has rights in collateral, security agreement authenticated by debtor with description of collateral; after-acquired property and future advances.

Perfection: filing (financing statement), possession, control (deposit accounts, investment property, letter-of-credit rights), automatic (purchase-money security interest in consumer goods), notation on certificate of title.

Priority: first to file or perfect; purchase-money security interest (PMSI) in goods has priority over conflicting security interest if perfected within 20 days of debtor receiving possession; PMSI in inventory requires notification to prior secured party before debtor receives possession.

Fixtures: fixture filing; priority over real estate mortgage if perfected before mortgage recorded; otherwise mortgage priority.

Default and enforcement: repossession (self-help if no breach of peace), disposition (commercially reasonable), notification, redemption, deficiency judgment; strict foreclosure.

Scope: applies to security interests in personal property and fixtures; excludes real estate, wages, and certain statutory liens; agricultural liens.

Choice of law: perfection governed by law of jurisdiction where debtor located; real estate-law of state where property located; deposit accounts-bank's jurisdiction.

Buyer in ordinary course: takes free of security interest created by seller, even if perfected, unless buyer knows sale violates security agreement.

Farm products: special rules; buyer of farm products may take subject to security interest unless secured party waived or buyer obtains waiver.