In Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, where Tompkins sued a New York company that owned a train that hit him in Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court reversed the decision for Tompkins by the court of appeals because it held that:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Supreme Court held that applying the doctrine of Swift v. Tyson (which allowed federal courts to create common law independent of state law) made it impossible to ensure equal protection of the law, since it allowed federal courts to apply different rules to the same cases depending on the jurisdiction. This conflicted with the idea of a uniform national law. As a result, the Court abolished the doctrine and held that federal courts should look to state law to decide cases.