Hawthorne Savings F.S.B. Hawthorne Financial Corporation v. Reliance Insurance Company of Illinois, Hawthorne Savings F.S.B. Hawthorne Financial Corporation v. M. Diane Koken, Insurance Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in Her Capacity as Liquidator of Reliance Insurance Company, Intervenor-Appellant, Reliance Insurance Company of Illinois

How later courts describe this case

• applying state substantive law to “a simple state-law contract claim between private parties” in federal court “solely on the [basis of] diversity of citizenship of the parties”
• declining to accord full faith and credit to the stay of litigation contained in the liquidation and rehabilitation orders issued by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in part on the grounds that state courts lack authority to enjoin litigation in federal courts
• “Under Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, federal courts sitting in diversity jurisdiction apply state substantive law and federal procedural law.”
• "[t]he necessary question in cases such as this one is whether operation of the diversity jurisdiction statute actually 'invalidate[s], impair[s], or supersede[s]' the state's liquidation efforts"
• “[W]e read jury instructions as a whole to determine whether they are accurate.”
• diversity jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1332