Superfos Investments Ltd. v. FirstMiss Fertilizer, Inc.

809 F. Supp. 450, 20 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 4, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20053, 1992 WL 394207
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedJuly 2, 1992
DocketCiv. A. J91-0568(L)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 809 F. Supp. 450 (Superfos Investments Ltd. v. FirstMiss Fertilizer, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Superfos Investments Ltd. v. FirstMiss Fertilizer, Inc., 809 F. Supp. 450, 20 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 4, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20053, 1992 WL 394207 (S.D. Miss. 1992).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

TOM S. LEE, District Judge.

This cause is before the court on the motion of defendant FirstMiss Fertilizer, Inc. (FirstMiss) to dismiss or, in the alternative, for partial summary judgment. Plaintiff Superfos Investments Limited t/a Superfos Trading, Inc. (Superfos) has responded to the motion and the court, having considered the memoranda of authorities, together with attachments submitted by the parties, is of the opinion that defendant’s motion should be denied.

The present case involves an agreement for the sale and purchase of anhydrous ammonia, a liquid fertilizer, which was executed between defendant FirstMiss as buyer and plaintiff Superfos as seller. Under the terms of the parties’ agreement, First-Miss was required to purchase a minimum of 80,000 tons of anhydrous ammonia in each year of the contract, which was to terminate on December 31, 1990. The agreement contained a “take or pay” provision, pursuant to which FirstMiss, even if it did not take delivery of the agreed minimum quantity of the product, was required to pay Superfos as though the minimum quantity had been delivered. Superfos instituted the present action on May 13, 1991 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, contending that FirstMiss breached the contract by failing to take delivery of the requisite minimum amounts of anhydrous ammonia dictated by the parties’ contract, having taken only 62,856 tons of the product in 1989, and only 78,588 tons in 1990. Superfos sought damages from FirstMiss in the amount of $1,478,670 for the 1989 shortfall and $163,438 for the 1990 shortfall. Upon motion of FirstMiss to dismiss Superfos’ complaint in the court for lack of personal jurisdiction, the Virginia District Court concluded that FirstMiss was not amenable to in personam jurisdiction in that state, since it lacked the requisite minimum contacts with Virginia. Superfos Investments, Ltd. v. FirstMiss Fertilizer, Inc., 774 F.Supp. 393 (1991). However, rather than dismiss the complaint, the court transferred the action to this court by order dated September 26, 1991.

In its motion before this court, FirstMiss asserts that since Superfos did not commence this action until May 1991, a one-year limitations period agreed upon by the parties and included in the parties’ contract operates to bar Superfos’ claim relative to the alleged 1989 shortfall, and that its claim for damages for that shortfall must therefore be dismissed. Superfos counters that the limitations period included in the parties’ contract is unenforceable, since Mississippi law — which it contends applies in this action — does not permit parties to contractually shorten statutorily prescribed limitations periods. Superfos further maintains that even if Mississippi substantive law does not otherwise apply to the subject contract, Mississippi’s proscription against *452 contractually reducing a limitations period represents a significant public policy of Mississippi which must be given effect, regardless of what state’s laws would otherwise apply. Finally, Superfos urges that the limitations provision included in the agreement under consideration is in all events by its plain terms inapplicable to the claim which Superfos asserts in this action, or alternatively that the language of the agreement is at least ambiguous on the question whether the contractual limitations period applies to the current controversy.

This court, sitting in a diversity case, is bound to apply the law of the forum state, including the state’s choice of law rules. Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941). Mississippi’s version of the Uniform Commercial Code allows the parties to a contract to choose the substantive law that will govern their relationship, so long as the state whose law is chosen bears a reasonable relation to the contract. Miss.Code Ann. § 75-1-105 (1972). 1 See also Woods-Tucker Leasing Corp. v. Hutcheson-Ingram Dev. Co., 642 F.2d 744 (5th Cir.1981); FMC Finance Corp. v. Murphree, 632 F.2d 413, 318 (5th Cir.1980). The agreement executed by the parties in the case sub judice includes such a provision, providing that the contract is to “be governed in all respects, including but not limited to interpretation and performance, by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Virginia law, and in particular, that state’s version of the Uniform Commercial Code, permits parties to agree to a shorter period of limitations in their contract, provided the period agreed upon is not less than one year. Va.Code § 8.2-725. 2 This is contrasted with Mississippi law, which prohibits parties from contractually shortening a limitations period, Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-5 (1972). 3 In view of this conflict between the laws of the two states, this court is called upon first to determine whether Mississippi would give effect to the parties’ contractual choice of law. The question, then, is whether Virginia bears a reasonable relation to the transaction at issue.

Superfos argues that the finding of the Virginia District Court in ruling on FirstMiss’ motion to dismiss that “all of the facts surrounding the formation and performance of the contract indicate that it was not substantially related to Virginia,” Superfos v. FirstMiss, 114 F.Supp. at 399, precludes a conclusion by this court that Virginia has a reasonable relation to the contract. Thus, according to Superfos, the parties’ contractual choice of law is invalid and of no effect. In the court’s view, however, Superfos’ position fails to recognize the distinction between the nature and quality of contacts which are necessary to support an exercise of personal jurisdiction *453 and those which will support a finding that a transaction bears a mere “reasonable relation” to a particular state. As the Virginia District Court observed in its opinion finding that it lacked jurisdiction over FirstMiss, “ ‘[d]ue process requires that there be more than a simple connection between the contract which is being sued upon and the state asserting jurisdiction.’ ” Superfos, at 398 (quoting In re August, 17 B.R. 628, 630 (E.D.Va.1982), rev’d on other grounds sub nom. August v. HBA Life Ins. Co., 734 F.2d 168, 173 (4th Cir.1984)). In contrast, the Fifth Circuit has recognized that

the “reasonable relation” test of UCC § 1-105(1), limits party autonomy only to the extent that it forbids them to select the law of a jurisdiction that has “no normal relation to the transaction.” ...
The parties’ choice should be upheld unless the transaction lacks a normal connection with the state whose law was selected.

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Bluebook (online)
809 F. Supp. 450, 20 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 4, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20053, 1992 WL 394207, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/superfos-investments-ltd-v-firstmiss-fertilizer-inc-mssd-1992.