National City Golf Finance v. Golf Cars of Mississ

STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:

*414 This appeal raises questions of judicial procedure and power arising from a lawsuit about golf carts. After a year of federal litigation, the parties settled and filed an unconditional stipulation of dismissal. The defendant later regretted that choice. So he moved to rescind the settlement and vacate the dismissal under state contract law, positing a mistake of fact and unjust enrichment. All assumed the district court had jurisdiction to resolve that motion on state-law terms. It did not. Rather, because the parties' unconditional dismissal deprived the…