Rule 66.Submitted Controversy

Section A lets parties who have a genuine controversy — one that could have been the subject of a lawsuit with them as plaintiff and defendant — take it straight to a court with subject matter jurisdiction, instead of filing and litigating a full case. The written submission needs three things: an agreed statement of the facts the controversy turns on, a certification that the dispute is real and the submission is made in good faith to determine the parties’ rights, and a request for relief. Every party, or their attorney under Rule 17, has to sign it. Once filed, the court treats the matter as if it were a pending action after a special verdict, deciding the case on the agreed facts alone, though it may draw inferences from them. If those facts do not give the court enough to enter judgment, it either dismisses the submission or lets the parties file an additional statement.

Section B lets parties use the same device inside a case that is already pending, any time before trial, on the same terms. Filing the submission abandons every pleading filed up to that point, so the case rests entirely on the agreed facts going forward. And because a pending case may already carry a provisional remedy, like an attachment or an injunction, the submission has to say what happens to it — carry it forward, or lose it, since anything left unaddressed is deemed waived.