Friday v. Smoot

Decision Date02 June 1965
Parties, 58 Del. 488 John M. FRIDAY, Plaintiff Below, v. Mary B. SMOOT, Defendant Below.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Delaware

Certification of questions of law from the Superior Court in and for New Castle County.

Arthur J. Sullivan, of Morris, James, Hitchens & Williams, Wilmington, for plaintiff.

Warren B. Burt, of Prickett & Prickett, Wilmington, for defendant.

Before WOLCOTT, C. J., and CAREY and HERRMANN, JJ., sitting.

WOLCOTT, Chief Justice.

This is a proceeding on Certification under Rule 20 of this Court, Del.C.Ann. The facts giving rise to the Certification are that plaintiff, a resident of Delaware, received personal injuries in an accident occurring in New Jersey involving the automobile of the defendant, a Delaware resident, in which the plaintiff was riding at the time as a non-paying guest. Action was brought in Delaware in which the defendant asserted the defense of 21 Del.C. § 6101, the Delaware Guest Statute, permitting recovery by a guest from his host only for willful or wanton misconduct. It appears that New Jersey, the place of the tort, has no comparable Guest Statute.

We accepted the Certification for the reason that it appears that there are pending in the Superior Court several cases involving the questions thus raised, and that there is a conflict, or possible conflict, between reported decisions in this State and several unreported recent decisions of the Superior Court.

The questions of law certified are:

1. Are the provisions of the Delaware Guest Statute, 21 Del.C. § 6101, to be given extra territorial effect and application?

2. Do the provisions of the Delaware Guest Statute, 21 Del.C. § 6101, apply to bar the right of recovery of a citizen and resident of Delaware, who sues to recover for personal injuries resulting from negligence of a defendant Delaware citizen and resident, where the alleged acts of negligence take place in New Jersey and such acts are based on alleged violations of the laws of New Jersey?

The two certified questions are in reality the same and will be treated as such. The basic question before us is whether, in Delaware, the substantive law governing a tort is the lex loci delicti, or the lex fori. The parties are agreed, and we concur, that whether or not a Guest Statute applies in a negligence action is a matter of substantive law.

Traditionally, the proper rule of conflicts as to choice of law applicable to torts occurring in jurisdictions other than the one in which suit is brought is the law of the place where the plaintiff's alleged right to be free from the act or event complained of is alleged to have been violated by a wrongful act or omission. In other words, the lex loci delicti is applicable in matters of substance. Restatement of Conflict of Laws, § 378; 2 Beale, The Conflict of Laws, § 378.2.

Delaware has long followed tradition in holding that the substantive rights of parties in a tort action are governed by the law of the place where the tort arose, while procedure is governed by the law of the place where the action is brought. Thus, in Skillman v. Conner, 8 W.W.Harr. 402, 193 A. 563, the Superior Court held that in an action in Delaware seeking damages as a result of a tort occurring in Maryland, the Delaware Guest Statute being a matter of substantive law had no application, and that the Delaware Guest Statute did not establish a Delaware public policy denying an action based on mere negligence brought by a non-paying guest against his host driver when the negligence of the driver was committed in another state.

In Gorman v. Murphy Diesel Co., 3 Terry 149, 29 A.2d 145, the Superior Court held that ordinarily the law of the state in which an injury sustained by reason of negligence occurs will be applied, but in the absence of proof of what that law is it will be presumed that it is the same as the law of the forum. And, again, in Price v. Crowl, Del.Super., 175 A.2d 50, the same court applied the law of Pennsylvania to a personal injury case in which the alleged negligence took place in that state.

In Pack v. Beech Aircraft, 11 Terry 413, 132 A.2d 54, 67 A.L.R.2d 207, this Court, in an action brought in Delaware founded upon the New Jersey Wrongful Death Statute, held that the time limitation in the New Jersey statute was a limitation of the liability created by it. We further held that since the place of bodily injury determined the place of wrong, i. e., in that case--New Jersey, the law of New Jersey governed the right of action for death. And, in Clayton v. Bartoszewski, Del., 198 A.2d 692, we held that in an action for personal injuries resulting from negligence taking place in Virginia the law of that state was to be applied to determine the standard of care required of the defendant, and the question of contributory negligence and assumption of risk by the plaintiff.

We think it thus apparent that Delaware has long been committed to the established rule that the law of the place in which a tort takes place governs the substantive rights of the parties in an action based upon the tort brought in Delaware.

The point would thus seem to be settled in this State. However, in an unreported decision from the Bench, the Superior Court held in December, 1964, that the Delaware Guest Statute applied in a Delaware action for injuries resulting from a tort taking place in West Virginia instituted by a Delaware resident against other Delaware residents. This decision is the one which led to the Certification now before us.

We are asked to overturn the established rule of conflicts long in force in this State, and to adopt a new rule which has gained fashion in roughly the last ten years among some courts, and notably among the textwriters and contributors to the Law Reviews. The new rule is exemplified by such cases as Babcock v. Jackson, 12 N.Y.2d 473, 240 N.Y.S.2d 743, 191 N.E.2d 279, 95 A.L.R.2d 1; Griffith v. United Air Lines, 416 Pa. 1, 3, 203 A.2d 796, and ...

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  • Casey v. Manson Const. & Engineering Co.
    • United States
    • Oregon Supreme Court
    • June 14, 1967
    ...White v. King, 244 Md. 348, 223 A.2d 763 (1966) (guest case); McDaniel v. Sinn, 194 Kan. 625, 400 P.2d 1018 (1965); Friday v. Smoot, 211 A.2d 594 (Del.1965) (guest case); Cherokee Laboratories, Inc. v. Rogers, 398 P.2d 520 (Okl.1965) (limitation of damages); Landers v. Landers, 153 Conn. 30......
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    ...proportion to the amount of plaintiff's contributory negligence.2 See Powell v. Sappington, 495 So.2d 569 (Ala.1986); Friday v. Smoot, 58 Del. 488, 211 A.2d 594 (1965); Sargent Indus., Inc. v. Delta Air Lines, 251 Ga. 91, 303 S.E.2d 108 (1983); Ling v. Jan's Liquors, 237 Kan. 629, 703 P.2d ......
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    • December 23, 1986
    ...the prevention of parochial applications of forum law in controversies involving foreign jurisdictions. See generally Friday v. Smoot, 58 Del. 488, 211 A.2d 594 (1965); McDaniel v. Sinn, 194 Kan. 625, 400 P.2d 1018 (1965); White v. King, 244 Md. 348, 223 A.2d 763 (1966); see also Comment, "......
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    ...As to the tort claims it is undisputed that Delaware applies the law of the place of the tort, lex loci delicti. Friday v. Smoot, 8 Storey 488, 211 A.2d 594, 595 (Del.Supr.1965); Lumb v. Cooper, 266 A.2d 196, 197 (Del.Super. 1970); Hempstead v. General Fire Extinguisher Corp., 269 F.Supp. 1......
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