Dunlap v. Aulson Corp.

90 F.R.D. 647, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13285
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedJuly 6, 1981
DocketCivil Nos. 78-291-D, 78-317-D, 81-233-D, 81-234-D
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 90 F.R.D. 647 (Dunlap v. Aulson Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunlap v. Aulson Corp., 90 F.R.D. 647, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13285 (D.N.H. 1981).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DEVINE, Chief Judge.

The Court now has before it for resolution, following hearing, various motions filed by the respective parties in these con[649]*649solidated cases.1 For purposes only of disposition of said motions, the general background of the litigation follows.

I. Background

Plaintiffs Roger and Mary Dunlap, husband and wife, are residents of Somers-worth, New Hampshire. From 1956 onward, Roger Dunlap was employed by Prime Tanning Company, situate in Ber-wick, Maine. On November 11, 1976, while so employed, he was operating a Turner Hydraulic Press, so-called, when he allegedly sustained severe personal injury as the result of a malfunction of the machinery.

Initial actions were commenced in the Superior Court of Strafford County against Aulson Corporation (now Speco) and Square D Company, which actions were timely removed to this court in September of 1978. There followed considerable additional pleadings seeking (with mixed success) to add third-party defendants, and plaintiffs subsequently brought additional direct actions against additional defendants. See n.1, infra. Additionally, the Court was required to rule upon various motions, and in the course of so doing made clear that it considered that the substantive law of Maine was applicable to these proceedings. As hereinafter discussed, more recent developments have given rise to the initial motion considered, that of the plaintiffs seeking to have applied the law of New Hampshire in lieu of that of Maine.

II. Plaintiffs’ Motion to Determine Applicable Law

Contending that as none of the defendants are residents of either Maine or New Hampshire the plaintiffs’ theories of strict liability, negligence, and breach of warranty should be decided pursuant to New Hampshire law, the plaintiffs urge (and the defendants strenuously oppose) that New Hampshire law should be applied to their right of and extent of recovery herein.

Under the rule enunciated in Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Co., 313 U.S. 487, 496, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 1021, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941), a federal court, sitting in diversity cases, must follow the conflict of laws rules of the state in which it sits. Roy v. Star Chopper Co., Inc., 584 F.2d 1124, 1128 (1st Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 916, 99 S.Ct. 1234, 59 L.Ed.2d 466 (1979). The New Hampshire Supreme Court has determined that choice-of-law decisions are to be based on relevant choice-influencing considerations as set forth in Clark v. Clark, 107 N.H. 351, 222 A.2d 205 (1966). These considerations are (1) predictability of results; (2) maintenance of reasonable orderliness and good relationship among the states in our federal system; (3) simplification of the judicial task; (4) advancement by the court of its own state’s governmental interests rather than those of'other states; (5) the court’s preference for what it regards as the sounder rule of law. Id. at 355, 222 A.2d at 208, 209. “Obviously, some of them will be more relevant to some type of cases, less to other types.” Id. at 353, 354, 222 A.2d at 208.

As we turn our attention to these criteria, we must bear here in mind that the machinery in question was in large part manufactured and transferred to Prime Tanning Company in 1965.2 As of such date, neither [650]*650New Hampshire 3 nor Maine 4 had adopted the doctrine of “strict liability”. It cannot then fairly be said that any of the parties to the instant litigations “reasonably expected” that the doctrine of strict liability would have application to their actions relative to the original manufacture and sale of the machinery in question. Additionally, in 1965 the choice-of-law rule in both New Hampshire, Gray v. Gray, 87 N.H. 82, 174 A. 508 (1934), and Maine, Winslow v. Tibbetts, 131 Me. 318, 162 A. 785 (1932), was that of the lex loci delicti, i. e., the right of recovery was controlled by the law of the place where the injuries were received.5

The first consideration, predictability of results, basically relates to consensual transactions wherein it is important that parties be able to know in advance what law will govern a transaction so that they can plan it accordingly. Clark v. Clark, supra, 107 N.H. at 354, 222 A.2d at 208. But here, unlike the Rhode Island manufacturer who could have purchased insurance for his protection under that state’s strict liability rule in Roy v. Star Chopper Co., Inc., supra, 584 F.2d at 1129, with a single exception, none of the defendants were here in a position to so prognosticate.6 Therefore, the consideration of predictability of result does not here suggest that it is more appropriate to apply New Hampshire rather than Maine law to the circumstances which give rise to the instant litigation.

The second consideration, interstate order, is best served when application of one state’s law offends no law or policy of the other state. Turcotte v. Ford Motor Company, 494 F.2d 173, 178 (1st Cir. 1974); Clark v. Clark, supra 107 N.H. at 354, 222 A.2d at 208. Here, Maine had deliberately chosen to leave to its policy-making legislature the adoption of strict liability,, preferring prior to October 3, 1973, to judge the liability of manufacturers and retailers under doctrines of negligence and warranty. Plaintiff Dunlap had for twenty years prior to his injury by choice been employed in Maine and has received workmen’s compensation benefits pursuant to the statutes of that state, the cost of which to his employer presumably is based upon applicable exposure under the law of Maine. This place of employment “is not ‘fortuitous’ but stable and chosen”. Maguire v. Exeter & Hampton Electric Company, 114 N.H. 589, 591, 325 A.2d 778, 779 (1974).7 As plaintiff here [651]*651is a beneficiary of workmen’s compensation, it can hardly be said that there exists the danger of failure to provide adequate compensation such as to cause the plaintiffs herein to become burdens upon the State of New Hampshire. Accordingly, the Court finds and rules that interstate order will probably be better served by application of the substantive law of Maine.

The third consideration, simplification of the judicial task, addresses procedural rules, not here applicable under uniform Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the question of whether it is easier for a Court to apply its own substantive law. Clark v. Clark, supra 107 N.H. at 354, 222 A.2d at 208. For reasons hereinafter detailed in our discussion of the final choice of law consideration, the Court finds and rules that its judicial task would be neither more nor less simplified by application of either the law of Maine or the law of New Hampshire.

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Bluebook (online)
90 F.R.D. 647, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunlap-v-aulson-corp-nhd-1981.