Also known as: questions of law · point of law · legal question
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An issue reserved for judicial determination that concerns the application or interpretation of legal rules rather than the resolution of disputed facts.
Quillan Quick and Quintin Quest each suffered identical injuries from the same defective product line manufactured by Quartz Energy. They filed a single complaint asserting the same product-liability theory. Because their claims rest on the same legal standard governing design defect, the court permits joinder under the rule requiring a common question of law.
Queen Quintero and hundreds of other purchasers sued Qubit Systems alleging the same software contained a uniform misrepresentation. The court finds that whether the statement was actionable under the securities laws presents a question of law common to every class member and therefore satisfies the commonality prerequisite.
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Quade Quincy and other policyholders challenged Quest Capital's uniform interpretation of an exclusion clause. The court determines that the single legal question whether the exclusion is enforceable predominates over any individual issues of reliance and therefore certifies the class under the predominance requirement.
Quincy Quigley and other students challenged a state statute requiring racial separation in public schools. The court treats the question whether the statute violates the Equal Protection Clause as a pure question of law to be decided without deference to factual findings about local conditions.
QuickFreight, a New York corporation, was sued in Pennsylvania federal court for an accident occurring on a Pennsylvania road. The court treats the question whether state or federal common law supplies the rule of decision as a question of law governed by the Erie doctrine.
Quinley Quincy moved to dismiss a diversity action on statute-of-limitations grounds. The district court denies the motion and certifies the limitations issue as a controlling question of law whose immediate resolution may materially advance termination of the litigation.
The judge decides every question of law. The jury resolves only questions of fact. This allocation appears throughout the joinder and class-action rules that condition relief on the existence of common questions of law.
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Rule 20 permits joinder when any question of law or fact is common to all plaintiffs. The common legal question supplies the necessary link even if the plaintiffs' individual damages differ.
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Rule 23(a)(2) requires at least one question of law or fact common to the class. Rule 23(b)(3) further demands that common questions predominate over individual ones. Both inquiries treat the existence and weight of legal questions as matters for the court.
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Section 1292(b) authorizes immediate appeal when the district court certifies that an order involves a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that immediate review may materially advance the litigation.
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…South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. They are premised on different facts and different local conditions, but a common legal question justifies their consideration together in this consolidated opinion.[^maj-1] In each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts…