Fox v. Morrison Motor Freight, Inc.

267 N.E.2d 405, 25 Ohio St. 2d 193, 54 Ohio Op. 2d 301, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 553
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1971
DocketNo. 70-128
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 267 N.E.2d 405 (Fox v. Morrison Motor Freight, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fox v. Morrison Motor Freight, Inc., 267 N.E.2d 405, 25 Ohio St. 2d 193, 54 Ohio Op. 2d 301, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 553 (Ohio 1971).

Opinions

Duncan, J.

The sole issue involved herein is whether the Ohio law or the Illinois law should be applied in determining the amount of damages recoverable. Application of the law of the place where the injuries occurred would limit plaintiff’s maximum recovery to the amount entered by the trial court. Ohio law places no limit on the amount of damages recoverable in a wrongful death action.

This court has never determined whether to apply another state’s limitation of the amount of recovery in a wrongful death action brought in Ohio in a case where the occurrence causing death took place in the other state. Nevertheless, this court’s dedication to the rule of lex loci delicti is far too deeply engrained in our cases to be realistically denied. See Collins v. McClure (1944), 143 Ohio St. 569; Freas v. Sullivan (1936), 130 Ohio St. 487; Lyons v. Lyons (1965), 2 Ohio St. 2d 243; Ellis v. Garwood (1958), 168 Ohio St. 241.

Of all the criteria generally set forth for use in the determination of a “choice of laws” (see Cheatham & Reese, Choice of the Applicable Law, 52 Columbia L. Rev. 959), rigid adherence to the rule of lex loci delicti has consistently satisfied only two — predictability of results, and ease in the determination of which law to apply. But would rote application of lex loci delicti, with its blindness to other operable facts, consistently produce a just result in a wrongful death action where the injuries causing the death of an Ohio resident occur in another state? We think not. Therefore, in such a case the automatic application of the rule of lex loci delicti must be abandoned.

[196]*196R. C. 2125.01 provides a right of action for death caused by a wrongful act in another state for which a right to maintain an action and recover damages is given by a statute of such other state. Section 19a, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, prohibits laws establishing a limitation on damages in a civil action for death caused by the wrongful act of another. Such clearly-established public policy requires compensation to the spouse, children and other next of kin for all sufficiently demonstrated pecuniary injury resulting from the death. R. C. 2125.02.

Illinois, at the time of the accident herein, as revealed by the provisions of its law, apparently did not likewise evaluate the predicament of a decedent’s next of kin, but made certain considerations favoring defendants in a wrongful death case, and presumably their insurers.1

In a wrongful death action brought in Ohio, a decision regarding damages, based upon solid Ohio public policy, could be seized upon as compelling reason to abjure the law of the place of the wrong.

Although we believe that a decision made on the basis of public policy in this state would be meritorious, a decision made solely on that basis would ignore other relevant aspects of the multi-state wrongful death problem. A public policy solution founded on the policy of the forum state requires only the discovery and application of that state’s policy. If application of the rule of lex loci delicti is automatic, a decision based on the discovery and application of the public policy of the forum would be semi-automatic, the application of which would appear to ignore situations wherein the public policy of more than one state may well demand consideration. Such a situation would arise in the case at bar if the driver of defendant’s truck were an Illinois resident and if the defendant were an Illinois corporation. Resting our decision [197]*197on public policy in this case might well be adequate, but would be far too shortsighted to serve as a rule of law.

Although the majority of jurisdictions having cause to review lew loci delicti have rejected its continued automatic use,2 appellee suggests that deviation from the law of the place of the wrong is so laden with trepidation because of innumerable problems with most complex and obscure solutions, that other “choice of law” rules do more violence to fairness than the firm rules they attempt to succeed. It is claimed that the abandonment of lew loci delicti by New York courts has generated confusion. Babcock v. Jackson (1963), 12 N. Y. 2d 473, 191 N. E. 2d 279; Dym v. Gordon (1965), 16 N. Y. 2d 120, 209 N. E. 2d 792; Macey v. Rozbicki (1966), 18 N. Y. 2d 289, 221 N. E. 2d 380; Miller v. Miller (1968), 22 N. Y. 2d 12, 237 N. E. 2d 877; Tooker v. Lopez (1969), 24 N. Y. 2d 569, 249 N. E. 2d 394, are cases illustrative of the problems that have arisen after the demise of lew loci delicti, particularly in cases involving host-guest, multi-state tort actions.

With full appreciation of the extent of the disturbance of the placidness of choice of laws under a mechanical rule of lew loci delicti, the facts of the case at bar classically [198]*198demonstrate the injustice of the automatic application of the law of the place of the injury.

By offering to confess judgment, defendant in effect admitted liability for negligence, thus removing from consideration any conflict concerning the conduct required of motorists by Illinois traffic laws.

As noted by Chief Justice Traynor in Reich v. Purcell (1967), 67 Cal. 2d 551, 556, 432 P. 2d 727:

“Limitations of damages * * # have little or nothing to do with conduct. They are concerned not with how people should behave, but how survivors should be compensated. The state of the place of the wrong has little or no interest in such compensation when none of the parties reside there.”

See, also, Fabricius v. Horgen (1965), 257 Iowa 268, 132 N. W. 2d 410; Tramontana v. S. A. Empresa De Viacao Aerea Rio Grandense (C. A. D. C. 1965), 350 F. 2d 468; Griffith v. United Air Lines (1964), 416 Pa. 1, 203 A. 2d 797; Ingersoll v. Klein (1969), 106 Ill. App. 2d 330, 245 N. E. 2d 288.

We have no doubt that if an issue were involved concerning the driving conduct of the parties within the state where the accident occurred that state would have a substantial interest in the determination of that issue; therefore, in choosing the law to be applied such an interest would have to be considered.

All governmental interest in this case is Ohio’s. Both the interest in fair and adequate compensation for the next of kin of an Ohio resident killed by a wrongdoer and the lawful administration of the decedent’s estate are solely Ohio governmental interests. We fail to find any Illinois concern involved or disturbed.

In this case, it may be stated that there is no true conflict of laws problem, or a false conflict, since Illinois has no interest in the litigation. See Reich v. Purcell, supra (67 Cal. 2d 551); Traynor, Is This Conflict Really Necessary, 37 Tex. L. Rev. 657. However, any theory of choice of law other than lex loci delicti calls for the evaluation [199]*199of the posture of the law of more than one state. Once the process of examining the law of the place of injury, the law of the forum, and the law of any other state haying an interest is implemented, whether or not a conflict is found, the decision-making process is the same.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
267 N.E.2d 405, 25 Ohio St. 2d 193, 54 Ohio Op. 2d 301, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 553, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fox-v-morrison-motor-freight-inc-ohio-1971.