376
Opinion of the Court
ment of the settlement agreement is for state courts, unless there is some independent basis for federal jurisdiction. Pp. 377-382.
993 F. 2d 883, reversed and remanded.
Scalia, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Michael Reynolds Jencks argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
Frank C. Morris, Jr., argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Thomas R. Bagby and Andrea R. Calem.*
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court.
After respondent Guardian Life Insurance Company 1 terminated petitioner's general agency agreement, petitioner brought suit in California Superior Court alleging various state-law claims. Respondent removed the case to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California on the basis of diversity jurisdiction and filed state-law counterclaims. After closing arguments but before the District Judge instructed the jury, the parties arrived at an oral agreement settling all claims and counterclaims, the substance of which they recited, on the record, before the District Judge in chambers. In April 1992, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(ii), the parties executed a
*A brief of amici curiae urging reversal was filed for the State of Ohio et al. by Lee Fisher, Attorney General of Ohio, Richard A. Cordray, State Solicitor, and Simon B. Karas, Charles E. Cole, Attorney General of Alaska, John Payton, Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia, Roland W. Burris, Attorney General of Illinois, Robert T. Stephan, Attorney General of Kansas, Scott Harshbarger, Attorney General of Massachusetts, Joe Mazurek, Attorney General of Montana, Susan B. Loving, Attorney General of Oklahoma, Ernest D. Preate, Jr., Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and Stephen Rosenthal, Attorney General of Virginia.
1 Guardian Life is the sole respondent. The Guardian Insurance and Annuity Corporation and the Guardian Investor Services Corporation were listed as appellees below, but in fact they had been dismissed prior to trial.
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