GEORGIA COLHOUN, PETITIONER,
v.
GREYHOUND LINES, INC., A CORPORATION, AND EDWARD C. CASTLE, RESPONDENTS

Fla. | 1972-05-17
No. 41722
ROBERTS, C. J., and CARLTON, ADKINS and DEKLE, JJ., concur., BOYD and McCAIN, JJ., dissent.
265 So. 2d 18 Florida Supreme Court (1972) Negative Treatment
Cited by 61 cases

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Synopsis

Petitioner Georgia Colhoun, a Florida resident, filed suit in Florida against Greyhound Lines more than two years after suffering injuries in a Tennessee bus accident. The issue was whether Florida courts must apply Tennessee's one-year statute of limitations or Florida's longer limitations period. The Florida Supreme Court held that while tort claims are barred under Tennessee's statute of limitations because they arose in Tennessee, the contract claim must be tried because it arose in Florida where the ticket was purchased.


Holding

Tort claims arising in Tennessee are barred by Tennessee's one-year statute of limitations and are properly dismissed under Florida Statute Section 95.10, which allows Florida courts to 'borrow' another state's statute of limitations. However, the contract claim arose in Florida (where the ticket was purchased) and is not barred by Tennessee's statute, so it must proceed under Florida's three-year limitations period for contract actions.


Headnotes

[1] A cause of action sounding in tort arises in the jurisdiction where the last act necessary to establish liability occurred.

[2] A cause of action sounding in contract arises where the last act necessary to complete the contract is performed.

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Key Quotes

“Florida follows the general rule that the nature, validity and interpretation of contracts are governed by the laws of the state or country where the contracts are made or to be performed. Matters of procedure and remedy in the enforcement of contracts depend upon the forum or the place where suit is brought.”

Establishes the foundational conflict of laws principle distinguishing substantive versus procedural matters.

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Facts & Procedural History

In December 1967, Colhoun purchased a Greyhound bus ticket in Florida and was injured on December 21, 1967, when the bus was involved in an accident i…

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Opinion of the Court
ERVIN, Justice.

ERVIN, Justice.

In December 1967, Petitioner Georgia Colhoun, a Florida resident, purchased a bus ticket in this state from Respondent Greyhound Lines, Inc., a common carrier doing business in Florida. While using the ticket on December 21, 1967, and traveling on a Greyhound bus driven by Respondent Edward Castle, she was injured in Tennessee when the bus was involved in an accident. Twenty months later, on August 27, 1969, she filed a three-count complaint in the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County against Respondents alleging negligence, gross negligence, and breach of contract and warranty. Respondents answered admitting the plaintiff was a passenger on the bus which was involved in the accident, but generally denying all other allegations contained in the complaint. In addition Respondents contended the one-year statute of limitations of Tennessee was controlling, barring the suit. They moved for summary judgment.

Respondents’ motion was granted and the District Court of Appeal, Second District, affirmed. Colhoun v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., Fla.App.1971, 253 So.2d 176. We granted certiorari because that decision conflicts with Fincher Motors, Inc. v. Northwestern Bank & Trust Co., Fla.App.1964, 166 So.2d 717, where the District Court of Appeal, Third District, held:

“Florida follows the general rule that the nature, validity and interpretation of contracts are governed by the laws of the state or country where the contracts are made or to be performed. Matters *20of procedure and remedy in the enforcement of contracts depend upon the forum or the place where suit is brought. See Castorri v. Milbrand, Fla.App.1960, 118 So.2d 563, and cases cited therein.” Fincher Motors, Inc. v. Northwestern Bank & Trust Co., supra at 719.

The only issue before this Court in this case is whether Florida law requires Florida courts to apply Tennessee’s statute of limitations.

Statutes of limitations traditionally have been considered procedural matters; as such, the limitation of action law of the forum is applicable. R. Leflar, American Conflicts Law § 127 (1968); A. Ehrenzweig, Conflicts In a Nutshell § 21 (1965); G. Stumberg, Principles of Conflict of Laws 147-152 (1951); Restatement (Second), Conflict of Laws § 142 (1971).

Because Florida is the forum in this case, the appropriate statute of limitation will be found in Chapter 95, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., entitled “Limitations of Actions; Adverse Possession.” The chapter contains two possibly applicable provisions, Sections 95.11 and 95.10. The former provides in pertinent part:

“Actions other than those for the recovery of real property can only be commenced as follows:
******
“(4) Within four years. — Any action for relief not specifically provided for in this chapter.
“(5) Within three years.- — •
* * * * * *
“(e) . . . [A]n action upon a contract, obligation or liability not founded upon an instrument of writing, including an action for goods, wares and merchandise sold and delivered, and on store accounts.”

Under this section, the complaint was timely; Petitioner had four years in which to commence the tort action and three in which to bring the action sounding in contract. Her complaint was filed less than two years after the accident.

According to F.S. Section 95.10, F.S.A., however, there are times when Florida courts will not apply a Florida statute of limitation, but instead will “borrow” the statute of limitation of another jurisdiction. That section provides:

“When the cause of action has arisen in another state or territory of the United States, or in a foreign country, and by the laws thereof an action thereon cannot be maintained against a person by reason of the lapse of time, no action thereon shall be maintained against him in this state.”

We must determine, then, (1) whether the cause of action arose somewhere other than in Florida and, if so, (2) whether it is barred where it arose. An affirmative answer to both questions will mean the lower courts properly concluded Petitioner’s cause of action could not be maintained in this state.

The action arose in one of two states: Florida, where the ticket was purchased and the trip commenced, or Tennessee, where the accident occurred. If it arose in Florida, F.S. Section 95.10, F.S.A., is not applicable and Petitioner’s cause can be maintained since it was begun within the period set forth in F.S. Section 95.11, F.S. A. If it arose in Tennessee, however, it is barred since the complaint was not timely filed under that state’s statute of limitations, which provides:

“Actions for libel, for injuries to the person, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, criminal conversation, seduction, breach of marriage promise, and statutory penalties, shall be commenced within one (1) year after cause of action accrued.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 28-304 (1955).

While Tennessee has a six-year statute of limitations governing contract actions, the Supreme Court of Tennessee has held this *21to be the applicable statute when the action, whether in tort or contract, is brought to recover damages for personal injuries. Bodne v. Austin, 1928, 156 Tenn. 353, 2 S.W.2d 100.

That the action arose in Tennessee for purposes of determining whose limitation of action law is applicable to the tort counts is clear for “a cause of action sounding in tort arises in the jurisdiction where the last act necessary to establish liability occurred.” Ester, Borrowing Statutes of Limitation and Conflict of Laws, 15 U.Fla.L.Rev. 33, 47 (1962). The last act in this case necessary to establish liability occurred at the time of the accident in Tennessee. Because the tort causes of action arose in Tennessee, and because they are barred under the statute of limitations of that state, Florida law as enunciated in F.S. Section 95.10, F.S.A., requires Florida courts to conclude the tort claims are barred in this state. The District Court of Appeal, Second District, properly affirmed that portion of the summary judgment dismissing the two tort counts.

The count sounding in contract, however, is not barred; the lower courts improperly applied the Tennessee statute of limitations to it. This Court, in Peters v. E. O. Painter Fertilizer Co., 1917, 73 Fla. 1001, 75 So. 749, determined where a cause of action sounding in contract arises. In that case we said:

“. . . [Wjhere the last act necessary to complete the contract is performed, that is the place of the contract; and the place where a contract is completed, there the cause of action accrues.” Peters v. E. O. Painter Fertilizer Co., supra at 750. (Emphasis supplied.)

The contract in the instant case was completed in Florida with the purchase of the bus ticket. It is in this State, therefore, that the cause of action sounding in contract arose. Because it arose in Florida, F.S. Section 95.10, F.S.A., is- not applicable; F.S. Section 95.11, F.S.A., is controlling. Under that section, the complaint was timely filed, making the summary judgment improperly granted as to the contract count.

Plaintiffs may sue in either tort or contract to recover damages for personal injury due to the negligence of a common carrier. Doyle v. City of Coral Gables, 1947, 159 Fla. 802, 33 So.2d 41; Butts v. County of Dade, Fla.App.1965, 178 So.2d 592. Because Petitioner has a good contract cause of action, this cause must be remanded for a trial on the issues of liability and damages.

The decision of the District Court of Appeal, Second District, therefore, is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the cause remanded with instructions to further remand to the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

ROBERTS, C. J., and CARLTON, ADKINS and DEKLE, JJ., concur.

BOYD and McCAIN, JJ., dissent.


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Cited By (31 total)

  • Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co. v. August, 530 So. 2d 293 (Fla. 1988)
    …st, 509 So. 2d 352 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987), which directly and expressly conflicts with the decisions of this Court in Sturiano v. Brooks, 523 So. 2d 1126 (Fla.1988), Bates v. Cook, Inc., 509 So. 2d 1112 (Fla.1987), and Colhoun v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 265 So. 2d 18 (Fla. 1972). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. On February 17, 1979, Susan August was involved in an automobile accident with an uninsured motorist while travelling in the State of Florida. August, a resident of Massachusetts, li…
  • Bates v. Cook, Inc., 509 So. 2d 1112 (Fla. 1987)
    …mination whether a cause of action for theft of trade secrets has arisen in a state other than Florida to be made solely with reference to the state in which the “last act necessary to establish liability” occurred, Colhoun v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 265 So. 2d 18, 21 (Fla.1972), or with reference to the “significant relationships” that the respective states have to the cause of action, Bishop v. Florida Specialty Paint Co., 389 So. 2d 999, 1000-01 (Fla.1980)? Cf Pledger v. Burnup & Sims, Inc., 432 So. 2d 132…
    1 / 2
  • Celotex Corp. v. Carmella Meehan, 523 So. 2d 141 (Fla. 1988)
    …ined that under Florida law a borrowing statute is purely procedural and the determination of whether a cause of action has arisen is made in accordance with the law of this state. Meehan, 466 So. 2d at 1101 (citing Colhoun v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 265 So. 2d 18 (Fla. [*145] 1972); Farris & Co. v. William Schluderberg, T.J. Kurdle Co., 141 Fla. 462,193 So. 429 (1940); Pledger v. Burnup & Sims, Inc., 432 So. 2d 1323 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), review denied, 446 So. 2d 99 (Fla.1984)). In construing section 95.10, t…

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