Questions on Jurisdiction to Determine Jurisdiction
1) Assume that the property at issue in Durfee really was in Missouri.
How can the Nebraska court be allowed to determine anything, including
whether it has jurisdiction, if it doesn't have jurisdiction? Is it
really the case that a court always has jurisdiction to determine its
jurisdiction?
2) Why is a defendant prohibited from collaterally attacking a judgment
for lack of personal jurisdiction if he appeared, but the issue was
never litigated? Why does the same rule generally apply to subject
matter jurisdiction? Isn't subject matter jurisdiction not waivable?
3) Why is the defendant allowed to collaterally attack a judgment for
lack of personal jurisdiction when he defaulted? Why is the same rule
generally applied to subject matter jurisdiction?
4) Why was collateral attack of subject matter jurisdiction allowed in
Kalb v. Feuerstein?
5) What is the justification for the last-in-time rule?