National Equipment Rental, Ltd. v. Szukhent
United States Supreme Court
375 U.S. 311 (1964)
- Written by Alexis Tsotakos, JD
Facts
In 1961, Szukhent (defendant) executed a lease with National Equipment Rental, Ltd. (National) (plaintiff) for the rental of farm equipment. The document was a 1.5 page form lease consisting of 18 numbered paragraphs. The final paragraph in the document assigned Florence Weinberg, an officer at National, as an agent for the purposes of accepting service under the agreement. Szukhent did not know Weinberg, but signed the lease, indicating he agreed with the terms. One year later, National brought suit against Szukhent, alleging that Szukhent had failed to make any payments on the lease. National served Weinberg with the summons and complaint as the agent assigned to Szukhent under the lease, and Weinberg promptly notified Szukhent of the service; National also notified Szukhent that Weinberg had accepted service. Szukhent filed a motion to quash the service, and the district court granted the motion, finding that the agency arrangement between Szukhent and Weinberg was faulty. The court of appeals affirmed, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Stewart, J.)
Dissent (Black, J.)
Dissent (Brennan, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
