AL Bar Civil Procedure 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under FRCP 15, a party may amend a pleading once as a matter of course within how many days after service?
- 14 days
- 21 days (Correct answer)
- 30 days
- 60 days
Correct answer: 21 days
FRCP 15(a)(1) allows one amendment as a matter of course within 21 days after serving the pleading, or within 21 days after service of a responsive pleading.
Question 2: Interpleader under FRCP 22 allows a party holding property to:
- Bring third parties into existing litigation
- Join all competing claimants to determine who is entitled to the property (Correct answer)
- Consolidate related cases in a single forum
- Remove a case to federal court
Correct answer: Join all competing claimants to determine who is entitled to the property
Interpleader permits a stakeholder who faces multiple, potentially inconsistent claims to a single fund or property to join all claimants in one action.
Question 3: Issue preclusion (collateral estoppel) bars re-litigation of an issue when the issue was:
- Raised in any prior proceeding involving the same parties
- Actually litigated, necessarily decided, and essential to a valid final judgment in prior litigation between the same parties (Correct answer)
- Decided by a court of competent jurisdiction in any matter
- Related to the same transaction as the current claim
Correct answer: Actually litigated, necessarily decided, and essential to a valid final judgment in prior litigation between the same parties
Collateral estoppel requires that the issue was actually contested and decided, that its resolution was essential to the judgment, and that the same parties were involved.
Question 4: Under FRCP 26(b)(1), the scope of discovery permits parties to obtain information that is:
- Only directly admissible at trial
- Relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case (Correct answer)
- Relevant to liability issues only
- Disclosed voluntarily by the opposing party
Correct answer: Relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case
Discovery under FRCP 26(b)(1) reaches any nonprivileged matter relevant to a claim or defense and proportional to the case's needs, not limited to admissible material.
Question 5: A class action may be certified under FRCP 23 only if the action meets all four prerequisites of:
- Commonality, typicality, adequacy, and predominance
- Numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation (Correct answer)
- Numerosity, commonality, superiority, and adequacy
- Typicality, superiority, predominance, and manageability
Correct answer: Numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation
FRCP 23(a) requires numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation before any class certification is possible.
Question 6: Venue is generally proper in federal court in any district where:
- Any party resides
- A substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred or where any defendant resides if all defendants are in the same state (Correct answer)
- The plaintiff chooses to file
- The amount in controversy is greatest
Correct answer: A substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred or where any defendant resides if all defendants are in the same state
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1391, venue lies where a substantial part of the events occurred or, alternatively, where any defendant resides when all reside in the same state.
AL Bar Civil Procedure 2
Under FRCP 15, a party may amend a pleading once as a matter of course within how many days after service?