Cowan v. Ford Motor Co.
| Decision Date | 07 September 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 54983,54983 |
| Parties | Mary Ezell COWAN, et al. v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Melvin & Melvin, Leonard B. Melvin, Jr., Sarah L. Entrekin, Laurel, for appellants.
Watkins & Eager, H.H. Whitworth, Michael W. Ulmer, Jackson, for appellee.
Before BROOM, P.J., and DAN M. LEE and PRATHER, JJ.
Certified to us by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is this cause, asking us to decide the following question:
May a nonresident plaintiff utilize Mississippi's courts to sue a foreign corporation qualified to do business and actually doing business in Mississippi for an accident which occurred outside Mississippi and which had no relation to the foreign corporation's business activities in Mississippi when the statute of limitations of the state in which the plaintiff resides and in which the accident occurred has barred the claim in that state?
The matter is a diversity tort suit, filed in Federal District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi, arising from a fatal accident which occurred in the state of Texas. None of the individual parties reside in Mississippi but the defendant, Ford Motor Company, is expressly authorized to do business in Mississippi, actually does business in this state, and has in Mississippi for service of process a designated agent on whom process was served in this cause. The Federal District Court declined to assume jurisdiction and dismissed the case. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit held that under Mississippi law our state courts would have jurisdiction over the cause of action. Cowan v. Ford Motor Co., 694 F.2d 104 (5th Cir.1982). On petition for rehearing, Ford has asked the Fifth Circuit to reconsider its decision, and before us for construction is Mississippi Code Annotated Sec. 15-1-65 (1972), which provides as follows:
Sec. 15-1-65. Action barred in another jurisdiction barred here.
When a cause of action has accrued in some other state or in a foreign country, and by the law of such state or country, or of some other state and country where the defendant has resided before he resided in this state, an action thereon cannot be maintained by reason of lapse of time, then no action thereon shall be maintained in this state.
In certifying the question to us, the Fifth Circuit notes that "this question was addressed in the earlier part of this century, see Louisiana & Mississippi R. Transfer Co. v. Long, 159...
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Shewbrooks v. A.C. and S., Inc., 56014
...this our Mississippi statute of limitations applies. See: White v. Malone Properties, Inc., 494 So.2d 576 (Miss.1986); Cowan v. Ford Motor Co., 437 So.2d 46 (Miss.1983); Montgomery v. Yarbrough, 192 Miss. 656, 6 So.2d 305, sugg. of error overruled, 6 So.2d 925 (1942); Louisiana & Mississipp......
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White v. Malone Properties, Inc., 55195
...do not consider Mississippi Code Annotated Sec. 15-1-65 (1972) nor in any manner disturb the cases there annotated, or Cowan v. Ford Motor Co., 437 So.2d 46 (Miss.1983), an opinion in response to a question certified to this Court by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.......
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Foley v. Argosy Gaming Co., 03-1793.
...for us to decide via certified question. See, e.g., Cavalli v. McMahon, 174 Conn. 212, 384 A.2d 374, 376-77 (1978); Cowan v. Ford Motor Co., 437 So.2d 46, 47 (Miss.1983); Liriano v. Hobart Corp., 92 N.Y.2d 232, 677 N.Y.S.2d 764, 700 N.E.2d 303, 309 (1998); W. Helicopter Servs., Inc. v. Roge......
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Michael S. Fawer v. Evans, 92-FC-122
...unconstitutional but constitutionality of that statute had not been squarely presented to and litigated by courts), and Cowan v. Ford Motor Co., 437 So.2d 46 (Miss.1983) (whether nonresident plaintiffs may utilize Mississippi courts to sue foreign corporations qualified to do business and a......