Case Problem Ch. 1

AOL, LLC, mistakenly made public the personal information of 650,000 of its members. The members filed a suit in California, alleging violations of federal law and California state law. The member agreement between AOL and its members included a provision declaring Virginia as the location of any court dispute. AOL asked the court to dismiss the suit on the basis of that "forum-selection" clause in its member agreement. Under a previous decision of the United States Supreme Court, a forum-selection clause is unenforceable "if enforcement would contravene a strong public policy of the forum in which suit is brought." California courts previously have declared in other cases that clauses similar to the AOL clause contravene a strong public policy.

Case Example

The system of prior court opinions is called ______

Case law

Two important resources for the court in making this decision are the state and federal _______ , which outline the powers, and limits to those powers, of the state and federal governments.

Constitutions

If the California court turns to prior court opinions to determine if it should dismiss the suit, it is looking for ______

Precedent

In deciding whether to dismiss the suit, the court in California first should look to ________ sources of law, or sources that establish the law.

Primary

If the court cannot find any sources of law that establish or direct their decision to dismiss the suit, the court should then turn to _________ sources of law for guidance.

Secondary

The California court will follow the decision of the United States Supreme Court because of the doctrine of ________ . The United States Supreme Court decision is _________ on the California courts.

Stare Decisis binding

What if the United States Supreme Court had not issued the prior opinion and California courts also had not decided that those clauses contravene a strong public policy? This case would be a case of _________ in California.

first impression

Without the prior guidance, the California courts likely would look to ______ authorities to help them reason through a decision.

persuasive

Another resource for the court are the ______ passed by the United States _______ and the state ________ .

statutes congress legislatures

Because of the United States Supreme Court opinion and the prior California cases regarding clauses of this type, the California court _________ enforce the clause in the contract.

will not

Because of the precedent set, the California court _______ dismiss the suit and the case will be heard in _______ .

will not california