An agreed case is a procedure that can be used in rare situations in which the parties to a lawsuit agree on the facts and disagree on the relevant law as applied to the facts. In such a case the parties stipulate to the facts, file a narrative statement of the agreed facts, and submit the case to the court for a ruling.
If a case submitted on an agreed statement of facts is appealed, the narrative statement of facts stipulated to by the parties is filed with the appellate court (often the court of appeals) rather than the trial court record (a transcript of the trial that includes witness testimony and documents admitted in evidence).
In New York, an agreed case, also known as a case submitted on an agreed statement of facts, is a legal procedure where the disputing parties concur on the factual aspects of the case but seek a judicial determination on the legal questions involved. This process allows the parties to bypass the need for a trial to establish the facts and instead focus on the legal interpretation. The parties prepare a narrative statement of the agreed facts and present this to the court. If the decision of the court is appealed, this agreed statement is what the appellate court, typically the Court of Appeals in New York, will review. The appellate court will not look at the trial court record but will instead rely on the narrative statement of facts that the parties have agreed upon. This procedure is not commonly used but can be an efficient way to resolve legal disputes when the facts are not in contention.