Meredith v. Glamorene Products Corp.

55 F.R.D. 397
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedAugust 9, 1972
DocketCiv. A. No. 69-C-542
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 55 F.R.D. 397 (Meredith v. Glamorene Products Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meredith v. Glamorene Products Corp., 55 F.R.D. 397 (E.D. Wis. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

REYNOLDS, District Judge.

In this case plaintiffs have sued each of three corporate defendants on six causes of action to recover damages for injuries allegedly caused by faulty construction, labelling, and sale of a bottle of Glamorene Drain Opener. Defendant Owens Illinois Company has brought a motion for summary judgment seeking to have three of these causes of action dismissed as to it,1 claiming that the applicable statute of limitations has run. Two of these causes of action, based on negligence and res ipsa loquitur, involve state-created rights and are before this court by diversity. The third, alleging violation of the “Federal Hazardous Substances Labelling Act,” (15 U.S.C. § 1261 et seq.), also involves federal question jurisdiction. Cross v. Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County, 326 F.Supp. 634 (N.D.Calif.1968); Fine v. Philip Morris, Inc., 239 F.Supp. 361 (S.D.N.Y.1964).

The injury to plaintiff occurred on December 29, 1966. Plaintiffs filed their complaint in federal court on November 18, 1969, and defendant Owens Illinois was served on March 6, 1970.2 The applicable statute of limitations for both the state-created causes of action and the cause based on a federal statute [399]*399(which, as here, does not contain its own limitation) is Wis.Stats. § 893.205, the relevant portion of which provides:

“Within 3 years:
“(1) An action to recover damages for injuries to the person for such injuries sustained on and after July 1, 1955, * * *.”

The question presented is whether this action was commenced by the filing of the complaint, which occurred within three years from the accident, or the date the individual defendant was served, which was sixty-seven days after that period. Plaintiffs contend that Rule 3 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides that “A civil action is commenced by filing a complaint with the court” applies, and that the action is thus properly commenced. Defendant cites Wis.Stats. § 893.39:

“An action shall be deemed commenced, within the meaning of any provision of law which limits the time for the commencement of an action, as to each defendant, when the summons is served on him or on a codefendant who is a joint contractor or otherwise united in interest with him.”

Defendant moves for summary judgment dismissing the action because service was not made by the U. S. Marshal until after the limitations period had run.

This conflict between a federal rule and an opposing state law is one of the more troubling conflicts posed by the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938), which established that where jurisdiction is based on diversity, state law must govern all substantive questions. Ragan v. Merchants Transfer and Warehouse Co., 337 U.S. 530, 69 S.Ct. 1233, 93 L.Ed. 1520 (1949), cited by defendant, involved a Kansas statute of limitations question very similar to that in the present case and was decided in favor of the state law. The Court applied the “outcome-determinative” test of Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U.S. 99, 65 S.Ct. 1464, 89 L.Ed. 2079 (1945), saying that since a state court would follow the Kansas statute that provided an action is commenced by the service of summons and would accordingly bar the action, the federal court must do likewise, even though the federal rules provide that the action is commenced by the filing of the complaint, in order to avoid granting recovery where the state would deny it. However, in 1965 the Supreme Court again considered the problem of a conflict between state law and a federal rule in Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965). In that case defendant was served by having copies of the summons and complaint delivered to his home. This manner of service fulfilled the requirements of Rule 4(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure but not Massachusetts state law which required personal, in-hand service. The Court held that the federal rule should determine the manner of service rather than state law. While it refrained from explicitly overruling Ragan, the Court broadened the grounds for decision of an Erie question involving a federal rule and elaborated the simple “outcome-determinative” test applied in Ragan to a much more searching inquiry into the state and federal policies at issue. The Court clearly distinguished between the situations for which Erie and its progeny lay down the appropriate rule and the type of situation the line of cases construing the Enabling Act control, cases which discuss the validity of the federal rules, or their relevance to a particular situation. The Court stated that a major flaw in the case of respondent before it was the “incorrect assumption that the rule of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins constitutes the appropriate test of the validity and therefore the applicability of a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure.” Hanna, supra, at [400]*400469-470, 85 S.Ct. at 1143. The Court developed this concept:

“When a situation is covered by one of the Federal Rules, the question facing the court is a far cry from the typical, relatively unguided Erie choice: the court has been instructed to apply the Federal Rule, and can refuse to do so only if the Advisory Committee, this Court, and Congress erred in their prima facie judgment that the Rule in question transgresses neither the terms of the Enabling Act nor constitutional restrictions.” Hanna, supra, at 471, 85 S.Ct. at 1144.

The Court did not foreclose inquiry into the importance of the state law but directed that inquiry to determine whether choosing the federal rule would make such a difference to the character or result of the litigation that it would unfairly discriminate against the citizens of the state or encourage “forum-shopping.” The Court in Hanna found that application of Rule 4(d) was within the scope of the Enabling Act and the bounds of constitutionality and would not discriminate against state citizens or encourage forum-shopping. It thus applied the federal rule rather than state law.

The question of whether Hanna supersedes Ragan in a diversity case involving whether filing of a complaint or service of a summons commences an action is not settled. The Second Circuit, faced with state law provisions identical to those in the present case and a similar set of facts, applied the Hanna criteria and held that Rule 3 should determine the time of commencement. Sylvestri v. Warner and Swasey Co., 398 F.2d 598 (2nd Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
55 F.R.D. 397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meredith-v-glamorene-products-corp-wied-1972.