Kenneth Lee Baker and Steven Robert Baker, BY His Next Friend, Melissa Thomas v. General Motors Corporation (522 U.S. 222)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 13, 1998 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 522 U.S. 222 · 118 S. Ct. 657
- Decided
- January 13, 1998
- Term
- October Term 1997
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Interstate Relations
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This ease concerns the authority of one State’s court to order that a witness’ testimony shall not be heard in any court of the United States. In settlement of claims and counterclaims precipitated by the discharge of Ronald El-well, a former General Motors Corporation (GM) engineering analyst, GM paid Elwell an undisclosed sum of money, and the parties agreed to a permanent injunction. As stipulated by GM and Elwell and entered by a Michigan County Court, the injunction prohibited Elwell from “testifying, without the prior written consent of [GM], ... as ... a witness of any kind ... in any litigation already filed, or to be filed in the future, involving [GM] as an owner, seller, manufacturer and/or designer....” GM separately agreed, however, that if Elwell were ordered to testify by a court or other tribunal, such testimony would not be actionable as a violation of the Michigan court’s injunction or the GM-Elwell agreement. After entry of the stipulated injunction in Michigan, El-well was subpoenaed to testify in a product liability action commenced in Missouri by plaintiffs who were not involved in the Michigan case. The question presented is whether the national full faith and credit command bars Elwell’s testimony in the Missouri ease. We hold that Elwell may testify in the Missouri action without offense to the full…
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