Riddle v. Shell Oil Co.

764 F. Supp. 418, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19448, 1990 WL 294239
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedSeptember 21, 1990
DocketCiv. A. No. 88-0505-R
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 764 F. Supp. 418 (Riddle v. Shell Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Riddle v. Shell Oil Co., 764 F. Supp. 418, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19448, 1990 WL 294239 (W.D. Va. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KISER, District Judge.

This matter comes before me on the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The case has been thoroughly briefed and oral argument was presented on July 30, 1990. The case is now ripe for disposition.

FACTS

On a motion for summary judgment, all inferences of fact must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976); Helm v. Western Maryland Ry., 838 F.2d 729 (4th Cir.1988). With that in mind, the pertinent facts are as follows: Decedent Larry D. Riddle was an employee of Mohawk Rubber Company in Salem, Virginia. Plaintiff alleges that during the course of decedent’s employment with Mohawk Rubber, he worked in areas where he was exposed to chemicals containing benzene and other agents manufactured by the defendants. On April 25, 1983, Mr. Riddle was diagnosed as having chronic myelogenous leukemia. Over five years later, on May 4, 1988, Mr. Riddle initiated a personal injury cause of action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi alleging, among other things, that the defendants 1 designed, manufactured, produced and sold chemicals which the defendants knew or should have known were inherently dangerous to human beings and that defendants breached express and implied warranties.

On October 26, 1988, the district court in the Southern District of Mississippi transferred the case to this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) on defendants Ashland Oil Inc.’s and Shell Oil Company’s motion to transfer. Leave of court to amend the complaint in order to name Unocal as a defendant was granted to Mr. Riddle on February 10, 1989. Unocal was served process in Virginia pursuant to Virginia’s long arm statute, Va.Code § 8.01-328.1 on March 7, 1989.

In late September 1989, Mr. Riddle died. Two weeks later in October 1989, the plaintiff — Mrs. Riddle — was named the personal representative of Mr. Riddle’s estate. On October 16, 1989, Mrs. Riddle moved to amend the complaint to convert the case to one for wrongful death pursuant to Virginia law. See Va.Code §§ 8.01-50 and 8.01-56.

Based on these facts the defendants argue that Mr. Riddle’s Virginia personal injury right of action lapsed, while he was alive, because he failed to file a cause of action within the two year Virginia statute of limitations (which defendants argue expired on April 25, 1985). By failing to file a personal injury cause of action within the Virginia limitations period as required by Va.Code § 8.01-243, defendants argue the decedent precluded his personal representative from converting decedent’s Mississippi personal injury cause of action into a Virginia wrongful death cause of action under Va.Code § 8.01-56.2

Defendant Unocal, in addition to the above argument, offers an independent argument in support of the motion for summary judgment. Unocal argues that because process was served upon it in Virginia pursuant to Virginia’s long arm statutes, Virginia’s two year statute of limitations for personal injury claims applies, as opposed to Mississippi’s six year statute. In essence, Unocal argues that because it was not served process in Mississippi, Mississippi does not have personal jurisdiction [421]*421over it and consequently Mississippi’s statute of limitations should not apply to it.3

Discussion

I. Choice of Law

As this case concerns allegations of injury in Virginia, but was filed in Mississippi federal court and later transferred to this court, I must first determine what law to apply. In Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964), the Supreme Court held that on a transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) initiated by a defendant, the transferee court must follow the choice of law rules that prevailed in the transferor court. The trans-feror court, the federal district court for the southern district of Mississippi, in the exercise of diversity jurisdiction would have applied the choice of law rules prevailing under Mississippi state law. See Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941). Therefore, I must apply Mississippi choice of law rules.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has adopted the “center of gravity” or “most substantial contacts” test articulated in the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws. Siroonian v. Textron, 844 F.2d 289 (5th Cir.1988); Price v. Litton Systems, Inc., 784 F.2d 600 (5th Cir.1986). Section 175 of the Restatement deals with wrongful death actions:

In an action for wrongful death, 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 § 6 to the occurrence and the parties, in which event the local law of the other state will be applied.

Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, at 522 (ALI 1971). In the instant case, the injury occurred in Virginia, decedent was domiciled in Virginia, plaintiffs are domiciled in Virginia, and defendants are all licensed to do business in Virginia. The only contacts with other states stem from the defendants’ being incorporated in and maintaining their principal places of business in other states. Therefore, I find that a Mississippi court would apply the substantive law of Virginia to this case.

I must next determine which statute of limitations to apply. Mississippi, according to its choice of law rules, applies its own law in procedural matters, which generally include statutes of limitation. However, Mississippi recognizes an exception where the limitations period is an integral part of the statute creating the cause of action. Siroonian at 292. The Fourth Circuit has held that the limitations period in the Virginia wrongful death statute, Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-244 (1984), is a substantive limitation. Continental Cas. Co. v. The Benny Skou, 200 F.2d 246 (4th Cir.1952), cert. denied, 345 U.S. 992, 73 S.Ct. 1129, 97 L.Ed. 1400 (1953). It is clear that the Virginia two year statute of limitations applies to this wrongful death action.

My inquiry does not stop here, however, because this action was originally brought as a personal injury action and later converted to a wrongful death action pursuant to Va.Code § 8.01-56 upon the death of Larry Riddle. It is therefore necessary to determine if the original personal injury action was timely filed.

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764 F. Supp. 418, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19448, 1990 WL 294239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/riddle-v-shell-oil-co-vawd-1990.