In Banks v. Allstate Indemnity Co., 143 Ohio App. 3d 97, 757 N.E.2d 776 (Ohio Ct. App. 2001) the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth District, favoring substance over procedural form, held that, as a matter of first impression, the state trial court, on remand, should have given effect to the answer filed in federal district court. That court observed: The primary objective and function of our courts is to adjudicate cases on the merits by applying the substantive law whenever possible, and not to adjudicate cases with finality upon a strained construction of procedural law yielding unjust results. Id. at 777.