Taylor v. Murray, 28553

• Decision Date: 08 March 1974
• Docket Number: No. 28553,28553
• Citation: 231 Ga. 852,204 S.E.2d 747
• Parties: Billy Joe TAYLOR et al. v. Faye Elizabeth Howard MURRAY.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 747

204 S.E.2d 747

231 Ga. 852

Billy Joe TAYLOR et al. v. Faye Elizabeth Howard MURRAY.

No. 28553.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

March 8, 1974.

Robert B. Struble, Millard B. Shepherd, Jr., Toccoa, for appellants.

Smith & Millikan, Harmon T. Smith, Jr., Gainesville, Gammon & Anderson, Joseph N. Anderson, Cedartown, for appellee.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

UNDERCOFLER, Justice.

This case involves a single car automobile wreck which occurred in South Carolina on July 4, 1969. An action for the wrongful death of a guest passenger was filed against the driver and the owner of the automobile in the Superior Court of Stephens County, Georgia, on March 9, 1972. South Carolina has a six-year limitation of action for wrongful death. Georgia has a two-year limitation. The question here is whether the South Carolina or the Georgia limitation applies. The trial court held the Georgia limitation applied and granted summary judgment for the defendants. The Court of Appeals reversed, 202 S.E.2d 512. We granted certiorari. Held:

' In accordance with the fundamental principle of law that matters pertaining to the remedy are governed by the law of the state or country where suit is brought, rather than that in which the cause of action arose, it is well settled that the Statute of Limitations of the country, or state, where the action is brought and the remedy is sought to be enforced, controls, in the event of the conflict of laws. In other words, the lex fori determines the time within which a cause of action may be enforced . . .

' However, where the foreign statute creating a cause of action not known to the common law prescribes a shorter period in which action may be commenced than that prescribed by the law of the place where the action is brought, the former, the lex loci, governs, and no action can be maintained in any jurisdiction, foreign or domestic, after the expiration of such period, since the limitation is, in such a case, a qualification or condition upon the cause of action itself, imposed by the power creating the right, and not only is action barred, but the cause of action itself is extinguished, upon the expiration of the limitation period. (Cit.)

'It by no means follows, however, that the limitation of the forum would not apply as a bar to the action, where such limitation is shorter than that prescribed by the lex loci. As demonstrated by the editor of Parmele's Wharton, Conflict of Laws, § 540b the reason why the lapse of time, prescribed by the statute creating the cause of action precludes an action thereon in other jurisdictions is...