Source: https://openjurist.org/404/us/97
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:04:27+00:00

Document:
1. The Lands Act, as interpreted in Rodrigue, requires that a State's statute of limitations be applied to actions for personal injuries occurring on fixed structures on the Outer Continental Shelf. The fact that the Louisiana law is 'prescriptive' does not make it inapplicable as federal law under the Lands Act, and a federal court may not apply a laches test to preclude application of the state time limitation. Pp. 100—105.
2. The Louisiana one-year statute of limitations should not, however, bar respondent's action here since retroactive application of that statute under Rodrigue would deprive respondent of any remedy at all on the basis of the unforeseeable superseding legal doctrine of that decision. Pp. 105—109.
On appeal, the respondent argued that Rodrigue should not be applied retroactively to bar actions filed before the date of its announcement.3 But the Court of Appeals declined to reach that question. Instead, it held that the interpretation of the Lands Act in Rodrigue does not compel application of the state statute of limitations or prevent application of the admiralty doctrine of laches. It concluded that the doctrine of laches should have been applied by the District Court and, therefore, reversed that court's judgment and remanded the case for trial. 5 Cir., 430 F.2d 27. We granted certiorari to consider the Court of Appeals' construction of the Lands Act and of Rodrigue. 402 U.S. 942, 91 S.Ct. 1608, 29 L.Ed.2d 109. We hold that the Lands Act, as interpreted in Rodrigue, requires that the state statute of limitations be applied to personal injury actions. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals, however, on the ground that Rodrigue should not be invoked to require application of the Louisiana time limitation retroactively to this case.
* The Lands Act makes the Outer Continental Shelf, including fixed structures thereon, an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction, 43 U.S.C. § 1333(a)(1). The Act extends the laws of the United States to this area, 43 U.S.C. § 1333(a) (1), and provides that the laws of the adjacent State shall also apply '(t)o the extent that they are applicable and not inconsistent' with applicable federal laws, 43 U.S.C. § 1333(a)(2).4 To the extent that a comprehensive body of federal law is applicable under § 1333(a)(1), state law 'inconsistent' with that law would be inapplicable under § 1333(a)(2).
The Court of Appeals did not suggest that state statutes of limitations are per se inapplicable under § 1333(a)(2). Rather, it focused on the peculiar nature of the Louisiana time limitation on personal injury actions found in Art. 3536, La.Civ.Code Ann. Article 3536 provides that personal injury actions shall be 'prescribed' by one year. The Court of Appeals attached muct significance to the fact that Article 3536 'prescribes,' rather than 'perempts,' such actions. Under Louisiana law 'prescription,' unlike 'peremption,' bars the remedy but does not formally extinguish the right to recovery. See Page v. Cameron Iron Works, Inc., 5 Cir., 259 F.2d 420, 422—424; Istre v. Diamond M. Drilling Co., 226 So.2d 779, 794—795 (La.App.); Succession of Pizzillo, 223 La. 328, 335, 65 So.2d 783, 786. This characterization has importance under principles of the conflict of laws. It has been held, as a matter of Louisiana conflicts law, that mere 'prescriptive' time limitations are not binding outside their own forum. See Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. C/B Mr. Kim, 5 Cir., 345 F.2d 45, 50; Kozan v. Comstock, 5 Cir., 270 F.2d 839, 841; Istre v. Diamond M. Drilling Co., supra, 226 So.2d at 795. Reasoning from this principle of conflicts law, the Court of Appeals concluded that the 'prescriptive' limitation is not 'applicable' in a federal court adjudicating a claim under the Lands Act.
The application of Louisiana's Art. 3536 is, of course, subject to the absence of 'inconsistent' and applicable federal law. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that Rodrigue forecloses direct applicability of the 'inconsistent' laches doctrine through admiralty law. But, by applying laches as a matter of federal common law, it sought to reintroduce the doctrine through a back door.7 This approach subverts the congressional intent documented in Rodrigue, id., at 359—366, 89 S.Ct., at 1839—1842, that admiralty doctrines should not apply under the Lands Act.
In recent years, the nonretroactive application of judicial decisions has been most conspicuously considered in the area of the criminal process. E.g., Mackey v. United States, 401 U.S. 667, 91 S.Ct. 1160, 28 L.Ed.2d 404; Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484; Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 89 S.Ct. 1048, 22 L.Ed.2d 248; Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601. But the problem is by no means limited to that area. The earliest instances of nonretroactivity in the decisions of this Court—more than a century ago—came in cases of nonconstitutional, noncriminal state law. E.g., Gelpcke v. City of Dubuque, 1 Wall. 175, 17 L.Ed. 520; Havemeyer v. Iowa County, 3 Wall. 294, 18 L.Ed. 38; Railroad Co. v. McClure, 10 Wall. 511, 19 L.Ed. 997.9 It was in a noncriminal case that we first held that a state court may apply its decisions prospectively. Great Northern R. Co. v. Sunburst Oil & Refining Co., 287 U.S. 358, 53 S.Ct. 145, 77 L.Ed. 360. And, in the last few decades, we have recognized the doctrine of nonretractivity outside the criminal area many times, in both constitutional and nonconstitutional cases. Cipriano v. City of Houma, 395 U.S. 701, 89 S.Ct. 1897, 23 L.Ed.2d 647; Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544, 89 S.Ct. 817, 22 L.Ed.2d 1; Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 392 U.S. 481, 88 S.Ct. 2224, 20 L.Ed.2d 1231; Simpson v. Union Oil Co., 377 U.S. 13, 84 S.Ct. 1051, 12 L.Ed.2d 98; England v. State Board of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 84 S.Ct. 461, 11 L.Ed.2d 440; Chicot County Drainage Dist. v. Baxter State Bank, 308 U.S. 371, 60 S.Ct. 317, 84 L.Ed. 329.
The latter limitation is 'prescriptive' only, i.e., that while the Louisiana remedy is barred, the right is not. Under Art. 3536, the limitation runs only to the remedy and would not be applicable in another forum applying the substantive right. Istre v. Diamond M. Drilling Co., 226 So.2d 779, 794—799 (La.App.1969). Respondent, therefore, argues that the federal doctrine of laches is the only limitation upon his right of recovery and that it is inapplicable where, as here, there is no prejudice to the defendant and any delay in filing the lawsuit was reasonably excusable. See, e.g., Akers v. State Marine Lines, 5 Cir., 344 F.2d 217.
The Louisiana courts consider the distinction between peremptive and prescriptive limitations important;1 and by reason of the federal statute, making Louisiana law applicable, federal courts are bound by the distinction. Richards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 82 S.Ct. 585, 7 L.Ed.2d 492. As stated in Rodrigue the federal Act 'supplemented gaps in the federal law with state law through the 'adoption of State law as the law of the United States." 395 U.S., at 357, 89 S.Ct., at 1838.
In Rodrigue—an action for wrongful death—the right is extinguished, if the action for recovery is not brought within a year of the death. Kenney v. Trinidad Corp., 5 Cir., 349 F.2d 832; Mejia v. United States, 5 Cir., 152 F.2d 686. Under Art. 3536 which governs here—Louisiana law holds that it is merely a 'procedural restraint which bars the remedy, but does not extinguish the right.' Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. C/B Mr. Kim, 345 F.2d 45, 50 (CA5 1965). See also Page v. Cameron Iron Works, 259 F.2d 420, 422 (CA5 1958); Jackson v. Continental Southern Lines, 172 F.Supp. 809 (W.D.Ark.1959); Succession of Pizzillo, 223 La. 328, 65 So.2d 783 (1953); Devoe & Reynolds Co. v. Robinson, 109 So.2d 226 (La.App.1959).
A district court, sitting in diversity jurisdiction in Arkansas, applied these principles of Louisiana law and held properly in my mind—that Art. 3536 did not bar an action filed more than one year after the injury complained of. Jackson v. Continental Southern Lines, supra. See also Page v. Cameron Iron Works, supra. That decision is in perfect harmony with long-established rules of conflict of laws.2 A different result should not obtain here where federal jurisdiction, 43 U.S.C. § 1333, flows from a head other than diversity.
Today's decision conflicts with Levinson v. Deupree, 345 U.S. 648, 73 S.Ct. 914, 97 L.Ed. 1319, where the District Court was enforcing in admiralty a state cause of action for wrongful death. Although procedural irregularities in the appointment of the administrator would have barred—under the state statute of limitations—an action in state court, we held that federal courts were free to formulate their own procedural rules. If we were to follow Levinson, we would not bind federal courts to state rules of procedure designed to have no application beyond the state forum for which they were created.3 Cf. Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative, 356 U.S. 525, 533—539, 78 S.Ct. 893, 898 902, 2 L.Ed.2d 953; Angel v. Bullington, 330 U.S. 183, 192, 67 S.Ct. 657, 662, 91 L.Ed. 832; Atkins v. Schmutz Manufacturing Co., 435 F.2d 527 (CA4 1970); Note, 71 Col.L.Rev. 865 (1971).
Today's decision also conflicts with our decision in Richards v. United States, supra. There, the Federal Tort Claims Act referred us to the local law for a rule of decision, just as Rodrigue and the Lands Act do in the present case. We concluded that the Act 'require(d) application of the whole law of the State where the act or omission occurred,' 369 U.S., at 11, 82 S.Ct., at 582, including its conflict of laws decision.4 If we were to follow Richards and Rodrigue in the present case, we would apply Louisiana's prescriptive rule as it has been construed by Louisiana courts and not use it to bar an action in a different forum.
For in that other forum—here the federal district court Louisiana law allows the federal court, consistently with conflict of laws, to apply a different limitation than Louisiana would apply in her own courts.
Since the federal court is not a Louisiana forum,5 the Louisiana law of prescription permits enforcement of this claim after Louisiana's one-year statute has run.6 Therefore, if we are to be faithful to the federal scheme we must apply Louisiana law; and Louisiana law would not apply Rodrigue in a personal injury case where the suit is not brought in a Louisiana forum.
The decision of the District Court is unreported (E.D.La., Civil Action No. 68—19D).
Contrary to the suggestion by Mr. Justice Douglas, our holding today is consonant with Levinson v. Deupree, supra, n. 5. Since Levinson involved a federal court's obligation to adopt state procedural rules in an admiralty action, it has very limited relevance to the instant case, which involves an action under a statute which ousts admiralty law and specifically directs that state law shall be adopted as federal law. Moreover, Levinson held only that state 'procedural niceties relating to amendments of pleadings' need not be applied by federal admiralty courts, and the opinion emphasized that it was not dealing with an important part of the state action, such as a statute of limitations. 345 U.S., at 651—652, 73 S.Ct., at 916. As pointed out above, our holding today does not extend to such state 'housekeeping rules.' See n. 6, supra.
Accord, Restatement of Conflict of Laws §§ 603—604 (1934): Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws §§ 142, 143 (1971); 3 J. Beale, Conflict of Laws § 584.1 (1935); B. Currie, Conflict of Laws 232—234, 255 (1963); A. Ehrenzweig, Conflict of Laws 428—436 (1962); H. Goodrich, Conflict of Laws 267 (4th ed. 1964); Ailes, Limitation of Actions and the Conflict of Laws, 31 Mich.L.Rev. 474 (1933); Comment, The Statute of Limitations and the Conflict of Laws, 28 Yale L.J. 492 (1919).
The court then concluded. 'The applicable Louisiana prescription statute, LSA—C.C. Art. 3536, is procedural.' Id., at 794—795.
The majority would limit Richards' reasoning 'that federal courts should not create interstitial federal common law when the Congress has directed that a whole body of state law shall apply.' Ante, at 105 n. 8. It is precisely because we must apply the 'whole body' of state law, however, that we should apply the Louisiana interpretation of that law and not use the prescriptive rule to bar an action in a federal forum. H. Hart & H. Wechsler, The Federal Courts and the Federal System 456—457 (1953).

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