State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Dann

This case raises the question of the tension between possible judicial economy and the orderly processes of trial and appellate courts. The Supreme Court sits as an appellate court to review final judgments of trial courts. There are mechanisms for this Court to hear and determine questions certified to us by Delaware trial courts where those courts have not made a determination in the first instance. But these situations should be rare.

Supreme Court Rule 41(b) provides, in part, that certification will be accepted by this Court only if there are “important and urgent reasons for an immediate…