Mezroub v. Capella

702 So. 2d 562, 1997 WL 716835
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 19, 1997
Docket96-04549
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 702 So. 2d 562 (Mezroub v. Capella) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mezroub v. Capella, 702 So. 2d 562, 1997 WL 716835 (Fla. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

702 So.2d 562 (1997)

Mohamed MEZROUB, Appellant,
v.
Javier F. CAPELLA, Appellee.

No. 96-04549.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

November 19, 1997.

*563 M. Joseph Lieb, Jr., and F. Scott Westheimer of Syprett, Meshad, Resnick & Lieb, Sarasota, for Appellant.

Richard A. Garland of Dickinson & Gibbons, P.A., Sarasota, for Appellee.

ALTENBERND, Judge.

Mohamed Mezroub appeals the trial court's final order dismissing his personal injury lawsuit on the ground that it is barred by the statute of limitations. The trial court reluctantly dismissed the action because it concluded that section 95.10, Florida Statutes (1993), required a Florida court to borrow a Georgia statute of limitations for use in a lawsuit involving an automobile accident occurring in Georgia. Al though our borrowing statute does contain language dating from the period when we rigidly applied lex loci delicti as the method to resolve conflicts of law in tort cases, a trial court must now apply a significant relationship analysis when deciding whether to borrow a foreign statute of limitations. See Bates v. Cook, Inc., 509 So.2d 1112 (Fla.1987). Under that analysis, *564 the trial court erred when it used the Georgia statute of limitations in this case.

Mr. Mezroub and the defendant, Javier F. Capella, have been residents of Sarasota County, Florida, at all times relevant to this lawsuit. The parties decided to drive Mr. Capella's car to Georgia to attend a convention of Muslim scholars because they have a common interest in the Muslim religion. While en route to the convention, on November 27, 1993, Mr. Capella was driving his car when it was involved in an automobile accident on Interstate 75 near Atlanta. Mr. Mezroub sustained personal injuries for which he received medical treatment, primarily by physicians in Sarasota County.

On January 23, 1996, Mr. Mezroub filed this action against Mr. Capella in Sarasota County. The action was filed within Florida's four-year statute of limitations, but after the expiration of Georgia's two-year limitation period. See Ga.Code Ann. § 9-3-33 (1993). The initial complaint did not allege the parties' contacts with Florida. The trial court allowed Mr. Mezroub to amend his complaint to allege all of the above-described facts, and then dismissed the complaint with prejudice on the basis of section 95.10, which states:

When the cause of action arose in another state or territory of the United States, or in a foreign country, and its laws forbid the maintenance of the action be cause of lapse of time, no action shall be maintained in this state.

Section 95.10 was first enacted in 1872 and was last amended in 1974. See ch. 1869, § 18, Laws of Fla. (1872); ch. 74-382, § 5, Laws of Fla. The statutory phrase, "the cause of action arose," is reminiscent of the more mechanical lex loci delicti rules under which courts resolved issues involving conflicts of law by locating the territory in which the claim "arose" or "accrued." See 86 C.J.S. Torts § 27 (1997). For example, in Beasley v. Fairchild Hiller Corp., 401 F.2d 593 (5th Cir.1968), the court borrowed a Louisiana statute of limitations pursuant to section 95.10 to bar a products liability action. It did so, even though the victim was a Florida resident piloting a helicopter sold to and maintained by a Floridian. The helicopter crashed in Louisiana on a cross-country trip that began in Florida. Under the lex loci delicti analysis, Louisiana was the place where the tort "arose" because it happened to be the place of injury. If the analysis in Beasley were still applicable, we would affirm the trial court's ruling in this case.

The Supreme Court of Florida, in Bishop v. Florida Specialty Paint Co., 389 So.2d 999 (Fla.1980), however, rejected the traditional lex loci delicti rule and adopted the significant relationship test for determining conflict-of-laws issues in tort cases. In Bates v. Cook, Inc., 509 So.2d 1112 (Fla. 1987), the supreme court expressly held that the significant relationship test from the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, which was described in Bishop, should be used to determine where a cause of action arises for purposes of section 95.10:

Our ruling does not do violence to Florida's borrowing statute. We simply hold that the significant relation ships test should be employed to decide in which state the cause of action "arose." The borrowing statute will only come into play if it is determined that the cause of action arose in another state.

509 So.2d at 1115.

Thus, we must apply certain choiceof-law provisions from the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws (1969).[1] Section 146 provides:

In an action for a personal injury, the local law of the state where the injury occurred determines the rights and liabilities of the parties, unless, with respect to the particular issue, some other state has a more significant relationship under the principles stated in s[ection] 6 to the occurrence and the parties, in which event the local law of the other state will be applied.

Section 145 provides:

*565 (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 s[ection] 6.
(2) Contacts to be taken into account in applying the principles of s[ection] 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.
These contacts are to be evaluated according to their relative importance with respect to the particular is sue.

Section 6 of the Restatement (Second) Conflict of Laws (1969) provides:

(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 and the relative interests of those states in the de termination of the particular issue,
(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 the determination and application of the law to be applied.

Under these guidelines, the choice of applicable law is determined for each particular issue. See Crowell v. Clay Hyder Trucking Lines, Inc., 700 So.2d 120 (Fla.

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Bluebook (online)
702 So. 2d 562, 1997 WL 716835, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mezroub-v-capella-fladistctapp-1997.