Birch Ventures, LLC, et al. v. United States

This Court has the power to address an issue that confronts nearly every person litigating in every civil action in every federal court in this country. The issue is the district and appellate courts’ everincreasing misuse of Rule 56 to dispose of cases by weighing the evidence, determining the credibility of witnesses and deciding the ultimate facts, thereby increasingly disposing of cases which otherwise legally deserve a trial. The question presented is whether this Court, for the benefit of all present and future litigants, should issue an opinion restoring Rule 56 to its limited function of identifying the presence of any triable issues of fact and directing district and appellate courts that fact-finding, weighing evidence and determining credibility is for trials and not for summary judgment.