Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/404/97/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-05-26 23:59:48
Document Index: 585727359

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1331', '§1333', '§1333', '§1333', '§1333', 'Art. 3536', '§ 1333', 'Art. 3536', 'Art. 3536', 'Art. 3536', 'Art. 3536']

The issue presented is whether the respondent's action is time-barred and, more particularly, whether state or federal law determines the timeliness of the action. That issue must be resolved under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 67 Stat. 462, 43 U.S.C. § 1331 et seq. (hereinafter "Lands Act"), which governs injuries occurring chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On appeal, the respondent argued that Rodrigue should not be applied retroactively to bar actions filed before the date of its announcement. [Footnote 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. 430 F.2d 27. We granted certiorari to consider the Court of Appeals' construction of the Lands chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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). [Footnote 4] To the extent chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We hold, however, that the "prescriptive" nature of Art. 3536 does not undercut its applicability under the Lands Act. Under § 1333(a)(2) of the Act, "[s]tate law bec[omes] federal law federally enforced." Rodrigue v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., supra, at 395 U. S. 365. It was the intent of Congress, expressed in the Senate Committee Report, in the Conference Report, and on the floor of the Senate, that state laws be "adopted" or "enacted" as federal law. See id. at 395 U. S. 357-358. Thus, a federal court applying Louisiana law under 1333(a)(2) of the Lands Act is applying it as federal law -- as the law of the federal forum. Since the federal court is not, then, applying the law of another forum in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Moreover, the Court of Appeals' approach amounts to an inappropriate creation of federal common law. Even when a federal statute creates a wholly federal right but specifies no particular statute of limitations to govern actions under the right, the general rule is to apply the state statute of limitations for analogous types of actions. See Auto Workers v. Hoosier Corp., 383 U. S. 696; Cope v. Anderson, 331 U. S. 461; Campbell v. Haverhill, 155 U. S. 610; Note, Federal Statutes Without Limitations Provisions, 53 Col.L.Rev. 68 (1953). A special federal statute of limitations is created, as a matter of federal common law, only when the need for uniformity is particularly great or when the nature of the federal right demands a particular sort of statute of limitation. See Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U. S. 392; McAllister v. Magnolia Petroleum Co., 357 U. S. 221. But, under the Lands Act, there is not even such limited freedom to create a federal statute of limitations, for Congress specified that a comprehensive body of state law should be adopted by the federal courts in the absence of existing federal law. Congress specifically rejected national uniformity and specifically provided for the application of state remedies which demand state, not federal, statutes of limitation. Thus, Congress made clear provision for filling in the "gaps" in federal law; it did not intend that federal chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In recent years, the nonretroactive application of judicial decisions has been most conspicuously considered chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In our cases dealing with the nonretroactivity question, we have generally considered three separate factors. First, the decision to be applied nonretroactively must establish a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which litigants may have relied, see, e.g., Hanover Shoe v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., supra, at 392 U. S. 496, or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed, see, e.g., Allen v. State Board of Elections, supra, at 393 U. S. 572. Second, it has been stressed that "we must . . . weigh the merits chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
To hold that the respondent's lawsuit is retroactively time-barred would be anomalous indeed. A primary purpose underlying the absorption of state law as federal chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It would also produce the most "substantial inequitable results," Cipriano v. City of Houma, supra, at 395 U. S. 706, to hold that the respondent "slept on his rights" at a time when he could not have known the time limitation that the law imposed upon him. In Cipriano v. City of Houma, supra, we invoked the doctrine of nonretroactive application to protect property interests of "cities, bondholders, and others connected with municipal utilities"; and, in Allen v. State Board of Elections, supra, we invoked the doctrine to protect elections held under possibly discriminatory voting laws. Certainly, the respondent's potential redress for his allegedly serious injury -- an injury that may significantly undercut his future earning power -- is entitled to similar protection. As in England v. State Board of Medical Examiners, supra, nonretroactive application here simply preserves his right to a day in court. [Footnote 10] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court of Appeals justified its creation of federal common law in this instance by suggesting that personal injury actions under the Lands Act are in a "quasi-maritime area which is traditionally imbued with the laches doctrine and which presents a strong federal urge toward uniformity." 430 F.2d 32.
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 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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., 349 F.2d 832; Mejia v. United States, 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 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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. [Footnote 2/2] A different result chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Today's decision conflicts with Levinson v. Deupree, 345 U. S. 648, 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. [Footnote 2/3] Cf. 356 U. S. 533-539; Angel v. Bullington, 330 U. S. 183, 330 U. S. 192; Atkins v. Schmutz Manufacturing Co.,@ 435 F.2d 527 (CA4;970); 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 369 U. S. 11, including its conflict of laws decision. [Footnote 2/4] If we were to follow Richards and Rodrigue in the present case, we would apply Louisiana's chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Since the federal court is not a Louisiana forum, [Footnote 2/5] the Louisiana law of prescription permits enforcement of this claim after Louisiana's one-year statute has run. [Footnote 2/6] Therefore, if we are to be faithful to the federal scheme, we must apply Louisiana law, and Louisiana law would chanroblesvirtualawlibrary