The plaintiff's attorney made a claim for punitive damages under the theory that Mississippi law should apply. Yamaha did not move for summary judgment on the punitives claim. It filed a motion in limine to preclude plaintiff's counsel from introducing evidence on its punitives claim, evidently believing counsel would have to choose between the benefits of Mississippi and Louisiana law. That was not the case. The case settled for a confidential amount before trial.
Many states use an interest analysis in resolving the question.
The first step is to determine whether a true or false conflict exists. This is decided by examining the interest of each state in having its law govern a particular issue. A false conflict exists when only one state has an interest in an issue. If a true conflict exists, the law of the state with the most significant relationship to a particular issue is applied. In general, this should be the state which has the dominant interest in the determination of the particular issue.