Grauer v. United Truck Center, Inc.

4 Mass. L. Rptr. 35
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedMay 31, 1995
DocketNo. CA 91204
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Mass. L. Rptr. 35 (Grauer v. United Truck Center, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grauer v. United Truck Center, Inc., 4 Mass. L. Rptr. 35 (Mass. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

Cratsley, J.

Defendant, United Truck Center, Inc. (UTC), has filed a motion to establish Connecticut law as the applicable substantive law in this wrongful death case, Essex County Civil Action Number 91-204. The defendant argues that the substantive law of Connecticut is the applicable law because the plaintiff and the decedent were Connecticut residents, the car accident which caused the death of Margaret Grauer occurred on a Connecticut highway, and two of the allegedly negligent actions or omissions which lead to the accident occurred in Connecticut. For the reasons stated herein, the defendant’s motion is ALLOWED.

BACKGROUND

This wrongful death action arises from an accident that occurred on January 25, 1988 near a construction site on Route 8 in Derby, Connecticut. On that day Defendant Peabody New England, Inc. (Peabody), a Delaware corporation with its place of business in North Easton, Massachusetts, was operating a construction site at the location of the accident. Third-party defendant, Guy Marcotte3 (Marcotte), was driving a tractor trailer to make a delivery in Connecticut on behalf of the company B&B Manufacturing of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The truck driven by Marcotte was owned by Laurier Marcotte and registered in Massachusetts. The truck’s brakes had been serviced by United Truck Center of Lynn, Massachusetts. Margaret Grauer, a Connecticut resident, was driving her car along Route 8.

Mrs. Grauer was killed when the tractor trailer driven by third-party defendant Guy Marcotte lost control, rolled over, and crushed her vehicle. Plaintiff Albert Grauer (Grauer), the decedent’s husband, has brought this wrongful death action individually and as the administrator of the estate of Margaret Grauer. At the time of the accident both Margaret Grauer and her husband were residents of Naugatuck, Connecticut.

Grauer filed a wrongful death claim against Marcotte in Connecticut. That claim has been stayed, however, during the pendency of this action. In the present case, the plaintiff alleges that United Truck Center negligently serviced the brakes on Marcotte’s truck causing the accident. Grauer further alleges that Peabody’s failure to post adequate signs to warn of a traffic back up was a second cause of the accident.

DISCUSSION

Traditionally the Massachusetts choice of law rule was lex loci delicti, “place of the wrong.” Trudel v. Gagne, 328 Mass 464, 465-66 (1952). Under this doctrine tort issues were resolved by employing a “strict territorial” approach. Alves v. Siegel’s Broadway Auto Parts, Inc., 710 F.Supp. 864 (D. Mass. 1989). The substantive law of the state where the injury occurred was always applied in tort cases. Employing the lex loci delicti analysis, Connecticut substantive law would have been applied to the case at bar because accident and resulting harm occurred in Connecticut.

In the past twenty years our Supreme Judicial Court has adopted a more flexible, albeit less predictable, approach to Massachusetts choice of law cases. See Pevoski v. Pevoski, 371 Mass. 358, 360 (1976); Cohen v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 389 Mass. 327, 333 (1983). The current approach responds to the inter[36]*36ests of the parties, the states involved, and the interstate system as a whole. Bushkin Assoc., Inc. v. Raytheon, 393 Mass. 622, 631 (1985). While the place of the injury continues to be a primary consideration in determining the applicable substantive law, the inquiry no longer ends there. Pevoski 371 Mass, at 359-61. “Th[e] rule Ilex loci delicti] has provided and will continue to provide, a rational and just procedure for selecting the law governing the vast majority of issues in multi-State tort suits.” Id. at 359. However, the Court has held that in some cases there may be issues “on which the interests of lex loci delicti are not so strong.” Id. at 359-60.

The recent approach in Massachusetts choice of law cases “appears to be a bit of a hybrid, mixing lex loci delicti and the Second Restatement’s ‘most significant relationship’ test.” Alves v. Siegel’s Broadway Auto Parts, Inc., 710 F.Supp. 864, 870 (D. Mass. 1989). In Cohen v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 389 Mass, at 336, the Court chose the law of the place where the injury occurred stating that it did so because under Section 146 of the Restatement (Second) of Conflicts of Law, “no other state had a more significant interest. ”

While the Supreme Judicial Court has not “explicitly” adopted the approach of the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Law, it does look to Sections 6, 145, and 146 when making choice of law determinations. Schulhof v. Northeast Cellulose, Inc., 545 F.Supp. 1200, 1203 (1982). In determining the law with respect to a particular issue a Massachusetts trial court should consider both the principles of lex loci delicti and the interests of the state which has the most significant relationship to that particular issue.

In determining the applicable law to a particular issue a Massachusetts trial judge considers the following Choice of Law principles from the Restatement (Second):

Section 6. Choice-of-Law Principles
(1) A Court, subject to constitutional restrictions, will follow a statutory directive of its own state on choice of law.
(2) When there is no such directive, the factors relevant to the choice of the applicable rule of law include
(a) the needs of the interstate and international systems,
(b) the relevant policies of the forum,
(c) the relevant policies of other interested states,
(d) the protection of justified expectations,
(e) the basic policies underlying the particular field of law,
(f) certainty, predictability and uniformity of result, and
(g) ease in determination and application of the law to be applied.
Section 145. The General Principle
(1) The rights and liabilities of the parties with respect to an issue in tort are determined by the local law of the state which, with respect to that issue, has the most significant relationship to the occurrence and the parties under the principles stated in [Section] 6.
(2) Contacts to be taken into account in applying the principles of [Section] 6 to determine the law applicable to an issue include:
(a) the place where the injury occurred,
(b) the place where the conduct causing the injury occurred,
(c) the domicile, residence, nationality, place of incorporation and place of business of the parties, and
(d) the place where the relationship, if any, between the parties is centered.
Section 146. Personal Injuries

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Related

Schulhof v. Northeast Cellulose, Inc.
545 F. Supp. 1200 (D. Massachusetts, 1982)
Matter of Colorado Springs Air Crash
867 F. Supp. 630 (N.D. Illinois, 1994)
Alves v. Siegel's Broadway Auto Parts, Inc.
710 F. Supp. 864 (D. Massachusetts, 1989)
Bushkin Associates, Inc. v. Raytheon Co.
473 N.E.2d 662 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1985)
Pevoski v. Pevoski
358 N.E.2d 416 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1976)
Saharceski v. Marcure
366 N.E.2d 1245 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1977)
Cohen v. McDonnell Douglas Corp.
450 N.E.2d 581 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
4 Mass. L. Rptr. 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grauer-v-united-truck-center-inc-masssuperct-1995.