Arnett v. Thompson

• Decision Date: 21 June 1968
• Citation: 433 S.W.2d 109
• Parties: Carl A. ARNETT, Appellant, v. Oralea THOMPSON, Appellee. Carl A. ARNETT, Appellant, v. Edna Caudill ARNETT et al., Appellees. Carl A. ARNETT, Appellant, v. Wilson MULLINS, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 109

433 S.W.2d 109

Carl A. ARNETT, Appellant, v. Oralea THOMPSON, Appellee.

Carl A. ARNETT, Appellant, v. Edna Caudill ARNETT et al., Appellees.

Carl A. ARNETT, Appellant, v. Wilson MULLINS, Appellee.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

June 21, 1968.

Joe Hobson, Prestonsburg, for appellant.

James S. Hogg, Jackson, S. Russell Smith and Kirby A. Scott, Louisville, for appellee Oralea Thompson.

G. C. Perry III, Paintsville, for appellee Edna Caudill Arnett.

CULLEN, Commissioner.

Carl A. Arnett and Edna his wife, residents of Ohio, while visiting relatives in Kentucky were involved in an automobile accident in which the Arnett automobile, driven by Carl, collided with the automobile of Wilson Mullins in which Oralea Thompson was one of the passengers. Carl, Edna and Miss Thompson each sustained injuries and both cars were damaged. Miss Thompson sued Carl and Mullins. Edna, in a separate action, also sued Carl and Mullins. In a third action, Carl sued Mullins for personal injuries and property damage, and Mullins counterclaimed for property damage. The three actions were consolidated for trial. The jury awarded Miss Thompson $20,000 against Carl and awarded Edna the same amount against Carl. It awarded Mullins $630 on his property damage counterclaim against Carl. It exonerated Mullins from all claims against him. Separate judgments were entered accordingly.

Carl Arnet appealed from all three judgments. However, he has moved to dismiss his appeal as to Mullins, and we hereby sustain that motion. This leaves for determination the appeals as to Edna Arnett and Oralea Thompson. We shall first discuss the appeal from Edna's judgment.

Carl's primary argument is that since he and Edna are residents of Ohio the law of Ohio should govern to determine his liability to her; that under Section 4515.02 of the Ohio Revised Code an automobile host is not liable for injury to his guest unless the injury was caused by willful or wanton misconduct (of which Carl was not shown to be guilty), and that under the common law of Ohio a wife cannot sue her husband for a tort. See Lyons v. Lyons, 2 Ohio St.2d 243, 208 N.E.2d 533. These arguments were presented to the trial court as grounds for a directed verdict in favor of Carl, and he maintains that the trial court erred in not sustaining his motion on those grounds.

Prior to the decision of this court in Wessling v. Paris, Ky., 417 S.W.2d 259, Kentucky had adhered firmly to the lex loci rule, under which it was held that the law of the state where an automobile accident occurs governs the rights of the parties. See Ansback v. Greenberg, Ky., 256 S.W.2d 1. If applied in the instant case, it would mean that Kentucky law would govern because the accident happened here. However, in Wessling the court decided that the lex loci rule should not always apply, and in that case the court determined that it was proper to apply Kentucky law to a suit between Kentucky residents for damages arising out of an automobile accident in Indiana, where all interest involved in the situation, other than the mere place of the accident, were Kentucky interests. The result of the holding was that Indiana's host-guest law, which requires a showing of gross negligence, did not apply to bar recovery.

Some of the language in Wessling may be construed to indicate that this court abolished the lex loci rule and substituted in its place the 'most-significant-contacts' theory of Tentative Draft No. 9, Restatement (Second), Conflict of Laws, section 379(a). Under this theory the interests of each state would be weighed in each case, and the law applied of that state which had the greater significant relationship. However, the opinion in Wessling states in clear terms that the application of the 'most-significant-contacts' theory will be limited to the very clear cases. The opinion further suggests that public policy as to the particular law involved may enter into the consideration.

Upon further study and reflection the court has decided that the conflicts question should not be determined on the basis of a weighing of interests, but simply on the basis of whether Kentucky has enough contacts to justify applying Kentucky law. Under that view if the accident occurs in Kentucky (as in the instant case) there is enough contact from that fact alone to justify applying Kentucky law. Likewise, if the parties are residents of Kentucky and the only relationship of the case to another state is that the accident happened there (as in Wessling), there is enough contact with Kentucky to justify applying our law. The fact that we will apply Kentucky law where Kentucky people have an accident in Ohio or Indiana does not require that we apply Ohio or Indiana law where people of one of those states have an accident here, because the basis of the application is not a weighing of contacts but simply the existence of enough contacts with Kentucky to warrant applying our law.

Much has been written on this subject. Many of the authorities are listed in a footnote in Wessling. Additional references are Babcock v. Jackson in Kentucky, Sedler, 56 Kentucky Law Journal 27; Annotation, 96 A.L.R.2d 973; Wisconsin Guest-Out of State Accident, Out of State Guest-Wisconsin Accident, Charles, Wisconsin Bar Bulletin, April 1968, p. 27.

In Wilcox v. Wilcox, 26 Wis.2d 617, 133 N.W.2d 408, and Health v. Zellmer, 35 Wis.2d 578, 151 N.W.2d 664, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reached substantially the same result as we are reaching, although expressing it in terms of weighing of contacts plus policy. While Wisconsin so far has chosen to yield, on a policy basis, to the law of another state prescribing inter-spousal immunity, where a husband and wife from the other state have an accident in Wisconsin, see Haynie v. Hanson, 16 Wis.2d 299, 114 N.W.2d 443, Judge Charles has predicted in his article in the Wisconsin Bar Bulletin above cited that the Wisconsin court soon will apply Wisconsin law even in inter-spousal immunity cases.

In his article in the Kentucky Bar Journal, above cited, Professor Sedler indicates his personal view that the principles of Wessling should require that the Kentucky court apply Ohio law in a case such as the one before us. However, he states that the fact situation we have before us is the most troublesome of any to him, and he recognizes that some of the authorities would approve our applying Kentucky law in the instant case aside from the lex loci rule.

We find nothing in the numerous authorities studied to convince us that the view we are adopting in this opinion is not a valid one. It is true that a number of state courts in recent decisions have trended towards holding that on the inter-spousal immunity question the law of the state of domicile should be applied, because that state is the only one concerned with the potential family problems that are the basis of the inter-spousal immunity doctrine, and as a matter of comity the law of the domicilary state should be deferred to. See Annotation, 96 A.L.R.2d 973. However, we are of the opinion that if the lex loci rule was a valid basis in the past for this court not to recognize the inter-spousal immunity law of another state, in a suit here arising from an accident here, then the rule we now are adopting (of sufficient-enough contacts) is an equally valid basis. Particularly is this so since our court does not consider sound the claimed potential of family disunity that is the basis for the inter-spousal immunity doctrine, and since the policy of the law of this state is to allow recovery for injuries or death resulting from negligence. See Wessling.

So we conclude, on the conflicts question, that the trial court properly applied Kentucky law rather than Ohio law in this case.

The appellant suggests that this court should overrule Brown v. Gosser, Ky., 262 S.W.2d 480, 43 A.L.R.2d 626, and return to our former rule barring tort actions by one spouse against the other. We are...