Long v. Morris

• Decision Date: 21 May 1942
• Docket Number: No. 7932.,7932.
• Citation: 128 F.2d 653,141 ALR 1041
• Parties: LONG v. MORRIS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

141 ALR 1041, 128 F.2d 653 (1942)

LONG v. MORRIS.

No. 7932.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued April 9, 1942.

Decided May 21, 1942.

Rehearing Denied June 30, 1942.

Edwin D. Steel, Jr., of Wilmington, Del., and Charles J. Hepburn, of Philadelphia, Pa. (Philip R. Hepburn, of Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellant.

Walter Biddle Saul, of Philadelphia, Pa. (Otto Kraus, Jr., and Saul, Ewing, Remick & Harrison, all of Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellee.

Before MARIS, JONES, and GOODRICH, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

This case was tried and disposed of below upon the assumption that the rights of the parties to the suit were to be governed according to the law of Pennsylvania. The suit was in a federal court (sitting in Pennsylvania) whose jurisdiction rested upon diversity of citizenship. The law (parol evidence rule) pertinent to the establishment of the contract in suit relates to matter of substance. 3 Beale, Conflict of Laws (1935) § 599.1. The rule of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188, 114 A.L.R. 1487, therefore, attaches. The requirement that, where federal jurisdiction depends upon diversity of citizenship, substantive rights are to be adjudged according to local law contemplates the application of the local state's rule of conflicts as well. Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co., Inc., 313 U.S. 487, 496, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477.

In the instant case the contract in suit had been made in Delaware. Under the Pennsylvania rule of conflicts the rights and liabilities of the parties were to be determined according to the law of the place of contracting. Cf. Marcus v. Heralds of Liberty, 241 Pa. 429, 433, 88 A. 678; see also Restatement, Conflict of Laws (1934) § 346; 2 Beale, supra, p. 1210. Consequently the controlling Pennsylvania law was to be ascertained by that state's rule of reference to the law of Delaware. Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co., Inc., supra, and Peerless Weighing & V. Mach. Corp. v. International T. S. Corp., 3 Cir., 126 F.2d 239, 241.

It so happens that the parol evidence rule, which is here involved, is the same in Delaware as it is in Pennsylvania. Counsel for both parties so concede. In Universal Products Co. v. Annette E. Emerson, 6 W. W. Harr. 553, 36 Del. 553, 568, 179 A. 387, 100 A.L.R. 956 (the suit which produced the fee now in controversy), the Delaware Supreme Court, citing among other cases Dougherty v. Briggs, 231 Pa. 68, 79 A. 924, held that "where the question, as to whether an alleged contract was made, turns as here on the proper conclusion to be drawn from a series of letters and telegrams considered in connection with other pertinent facts and circumstances proved", the question is for the jury. Also, see Foreman's Systems, Inc.,...