Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Co.

Decision Date22 June 1967
Docket NumberNo. 24181.,24181.
Citation379 F.2d 545
PartiesMrs. Minnie Brade GLONA, Appellant, v. AMERICAN GUARANTEE & LIABILITY INSURANCE COMPANY et al., Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

William F. Wessel, Marvin C. Grodsky, Leonard J. Fagot, New Orleans, La., for appellant, Minnie Brade Glona.

Margot Mazeau, Frank S. Normann, Normann & Normann, New Orleans, La., for appellees, American Guarantee & Liability Ins. Co. and Henry O. Mac Donell.

Before RIVES and DYER, Circuit Judges, and JOHNSON, District Judge.

PER CURIAM.

This suit was instituted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana by the plaintiff, Mrs. Minnie Brade Glona, a resident of Texas, who sues the defendants, American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Company and its insured, a resident of Louisiana, to recover for the wrongful death of her son, who died as a result of an automobile accident which occurred in the city of New Orleans in September, 1964. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, on the ground that the plaintiff's deceased son, although informally recognized by the plaintiff, was her illegitimate son and that, therefore, plaintiff had no cause of action for his death.1

Plaintiff, in opposition to the motion for summary judgment, acknowledged that under the Louisiana law she had no right of action for the death of her illegitimate child but urged that to so restrict Article 2315 of the Louisiana Civil Code violates the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Upon such submission, the District Court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment.

Plaintiff argues for the first time on this appeal that the granting of the Rule 56 motion was erroneous for the reason that the laws of Texas should be applied in determining whether or not she has a right of action against defendants.2 Plaintiff's theory that the law of Texas should be applied even though the injury and death occurred in Louisiana is that, by reason of plaintiff's domicile, Texas has a more significant relationship with the occurrence than Louisiana. Such an argument at this point is foreclosed. Upon being met with defendants' motion for summary judgment, plaintiff was authorized by Rule 56 to develop factually that the law of the domicile had a more significant relationship with the occurrence than the lex loci delicti. Plaintiff failed to do this, and such an issue was not raised upon the submission to the District Judge.

As to plaintiff's argument that the construction by the Louisiana courts of Article 2315, Civil Code of Louisiana, so restricts said provision that it violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, this Court is clear to the conclusion that the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit States from...

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13 cases
  • Simmons v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit
    • March 10, 1969
    ...387 F.2d 781. See Avery v. Midland County, Texas, 390 U.S. 474, 88 S.Ct. 1114, 20 L.Ed.2d 45 (1968); Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Co., 5 Cir., 1967, 379 F.2d 545; Gruenwald v. Gardner, 2 Cir., 1968, 390 F.2d 591. II. The appellant urges that the United States' participa......
  • Shelak v. White Motor Co.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit
    • October 10, 1978
    ...injustice." Empire Life Insurance Co. of America v. Valdak Corp., 468 F.2d 330, 334 (5th Cir. 1972); Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Co., 379 F.2d 545, 546 (5th Cir. 1967). No such injustice exists in the case on The defendant argues that the district court erred in failin......
  • Glona v. American Guarantee Liability Insurance Company, s. 508 and 639
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • May 20, 1968
    ...Court of Appeals affirmed, rejecting the claim that the discrimination violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 379 F.2d 545. We granted the petition for a writ of certiorari, 389 U.S. 969, 88 S.Ct. 477, 19 L.Ed.2d 460, in order to hear the case along with Levy v. L......
  • Stokes v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co.
    • United States
    • Louisiana Supreme Court
    • December 14, 1970
    ...and we denied certiorari (250 La. 25, 193 So.2d 530). The same result was reached in the Federal Court of Appeal (Fifth Circuit) in Glona, 379 F.2d 545. Thereafter, both cases were argued together in the United States Supreme Court, and were In each of those cases it was found by the lower ......
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