Mager v. Mager

• Decision Date: 01 May 1972
• Docket Number: No. 8783,8783
• Citation: 197 N.W.2d 626
• Parties: Evelyn F. MAGER, Plaintiff and Appellant, and Wayne Mager et al., Plaintiffs, v. Irvin T. MAGER, Defendant and Respondent. Civ.
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Page 626

197 N.W.2d 626

Evelyn F. MAGER, Plaintiff and Appellant and Wayne Mager et al., Plaintiffs, v. Irvin T. MAGER, Defendant and Respondent.

Civ. No. 8783.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

May 1, 1972.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Where the State of Minnesota abrogated the defense of interspousal immunity in a decision dated December 19, 1969, and in such decision held that the absolute defense of interspousal immunity for tort was being abrogated prospectively as to all causes arising after that date, such defense was available in all causes arising in that State prior to that date.

2. Where an action is brought in the State of North Dakota by a Minnesota resident against her husband, also a Minnesota resident, for injuries arising out of an accident which occurred in the State of Minnesota prior to the date on which the defense of interspousal immunity was abrogated in that State, and applying the significant-contacts rule to determine the choice of law, we conclude that significant contacts are in the State of Minnesota and that its law applies, and that such immunity is available as a defense to the action brought by the wife in the State of North Dakota.

Wattam, Vogel, Vogel & Peterson, Fargo, for plaintiff and appellant.

Lanier, Knox & Olson, Fargo, for defendant and respondent.

Nilles, Oehlert, Hansen, Selbo & Magill, Fargo, amicus curiae.

STRUTZ, Chief Justice.

The plaintiff appeals from the judgment of the district court dismissing her complaint against the defendant. The plaintiff and the defendant are husband and wife. Prior to and at the time of the accident in question, the plaintiff and the defendant were married and resided on a farm near Warren, Minnesota.

On December 14, 1969, the plaintiff was seriously injured when her husband, the defendant herein, drove the car in which they and their three children were riding, into a Burlington Northern train at a crossing in Argyle, Minnesota. As a result of such injuries, the plaintiff was transferred from Warren, Minnesota, to St. Luke's Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, where she underwent extensive medical treatment.

The plaintiff commenced her action in the district court of Cass County, North Dakota, for the recovery of damages for personal injuries sustained as a result of the accident. Process was served upon the defendant at the Cass County sheriff's office in Fargo. A second action was commenced by the plaintiff as next friend for damages for personal injuries sustained by the three children, but that matter is not before this court on this appeal.

The district court of Cass County held that the Cass County district court was a convenient forum, but dismissed plaintiff's complaint on the ground that her personal-injury claim was barred by the doctrine of interspousal immunity, which had not been abrogated in the State of Minnesota at the time the accident occurred. From the judgment dismissing her action, the plaintiff takes this appeal and has served with her notice of appeal four specifications of error setting forth the errors of law complained of. These specifications of error are:

1. That the court erred in concluding that the rule of interspousal immunity is a substantive right, and not a procedural remedy;

2. That the court erred in concluding that the law of the State where the accident occurred, rather than the law of the forum, should be applied in determining whether remedies for negligence are available in an action by a wife against her husband;

3. That the court erred in concluding that that part of the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision which abrogated interspousal immunity, but held its decision to be prospective only, was substantive rather than procedural in nature; and

4. That the court erred in dismissing the plaintiff's first cause of action on the ground that the law of Minnesota, rather than the law of North Dakota, determined whether the plaintiff could sue her husband for damages for personal injuries resulting from his negligence.

The issue to be decided on this appeal is whether the plaintiff's right to sue her husband should be decided by the law of Minnesota as it existed at the time of the alleged tort, or by the law of North Dakota, where this action was brought. The doctrine of interspousal immunity has been renounced in this State for many years. In Fitzmaurice v. Fitzmaurice, 62 N.D. 191, 242 N.W. 526 (1932), this court interpreted Section 4411 of the Compiled Laws of 1913 as providing that a married woman may maintain an action against her husband for personal injuries suffered by her because of his negligence. Minnesota, on the other hand, only recently abrogated the doctrine of interspousal immunity for actions in tort, by a decision of its Supreme Court in Beaudette v. Frana, 285 Minn. 366, 173 N.W.2d 416 (1969). In that case, the Minnesota court said:

'We hold that the absolute defense of interspousal immunity in actions for tort is abrogated prospectively, as to all causes of action arising after this date, and is abrogated as to the instant cases.'

The decision in Beaudette was rendered on December 19, 1969. The accident in the case before us occurred on December 14, 1969, just five days before the Beaudette decision.

This court, in the recent decision of Issendorf v. Olson, 194 N.W.2d 750 (N.D. 1972), adopted the significant-contracts rule as the choice-of-law rule to be applied in tort litigation in this State when the wrong complained of occurred in a foreign State. We thus abandoned the rule that in determining the choice of laws in tort cases the law of the place where the tort occurred would be applied.

The appellant cites the case of Berghammer v. Smith, 185 N.W.2d 226 (Iowa 1971), where the action was brought in the State of Iowa by Minnesota residents against an Illinois trucking company for injuries arising out of an accident which took place in Iowa. One of the...