Opinion ID: 1924955
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Renvoi

Text: Erie also argues that under the circumstances presented by this case, this Court should apply the doctrine of renvoi. In American Motorists Ins. Co. v. ARTRA Group, Inc., 338 Md. 560, 570, 659 A.2d 1295, 1301-1302 (1995), we said [r]envoi is a French word meaning `send back' or `remit.' It has been suggested that the doctrine of renvoi was formulated to avoid the harshness of the traditional common law choice-of-law principles. The doctrine of renvoi is basically that, when the forum court's choice-of-law-rules would apply the substantive law of a foreign jurisdiction to the case before the forum court, the forum court may apply the whole body of the foreign jurisdiction's substantive law including the foreign jurisdiction's choice-of-law rules. If, in applying renvoi principles, the foreign jurisdiction's conflict of law rules would apply the forum's law, this reference back of the forum to its own laws is called a remission . . . If the choice-of-law rules of the foreign jurisdiction whose laws the forum would apply refers the forum court to the law of a third jurisdiction that is called a transmission. (Citations omitted.) Erie argues that the Court should apply the principle of renvoi and that a Maryland court should look to the entire body of Delaware law, including Delaware conflict of law principles and determine whether Delaware would apply Maryland law to decide the coverage issue presented. Erie argues that, in the instant case, Delaware would apply the law of Maryland to the underlying dispute since Delaware conflict of law rules apply the most significant contacts test of Restatement (Second) Conflict of Laws. To the contrary, the Heffernans argue that renvoi is a limited exception and that the instant case is an inappropriate situation in which to apply the doctrine. Further, the Heffernans contend that if Maryland were to adopt renvoi in the instant case, the factors, as outlined in ARTRA, [9] necessary for a Maryland court to override lex loci delicti and apply its own law, are not present. In ARTRA, which Erie contends supports its position, we applied only a limited form of renvoi that allowed the Court to apply Maryland law where the application of lex loci contractus indicate[d] that the foreign jurisdiction would apply Maryland law to the substantive issues of the controversy. ARTRA, 338 Md. at 573, 659 A.2d at 1301. ARTRA is distinguishable from the case sub judice. In that case, the issue was whether a commercial general liability insurer had a duty to defend or indemnify the insured seller of a paint factory under circumstances where the allegations of the underlying suit did not give rise to a potentiality of coverage. In interpreting the issue of coverage, which involved the clean up of polluted land in Maryland, we concluded that it was appropriate to apply Maryland law even though the insurance contracts at issue were entered into in Illinois. To reach that result, this Court assume[d] that Illinois choice-of-law rules would dictate the application of Maryland law to the substantive issues in [that] case. ARTRA, 338 Md. at 568, 659 A.2d at 1298. The contract at issue in the present case involves enforcement of an underinsured motorist provision of an automobile liability insurance policy, which, unlike the contract in ARTRA, was entered into in Maryland. Ordinarily, where the contract between the parties was entered into in Maryland, under the doctrine of lex loci contractus, we would, as a first step in our analysis, look to the law of Maryland to interpret the terms of the contract. The reason that we look to the law of the foreign jurisdiction, in this case, is because of our consistent adherence to the principle of lex loci delicti, which requires that we look at the substantive law of the place of the injury to resolve the tort aspects of the case. ARTRA is also distinguishable from the instant case because in ARTRA the Court was concerned that the strict application of the doctrine of lex loci contractus would encourage forum shopping and would lead to an anomalous result. A search of this Court's previous decisions fails to yield any case in which this Court has applied renvoi in a case involving the application of lex loci delicti. Further, in this case we are not of the opinion that the application of lex loci delicti will result in any harshness that the application of the doctrine of renvoi would avoid. Instead the insured will be entitled to recover the amount for which he has contracted, provided he establishes fault and the amount of his damages. Accordingly, the application of lex loci delicti produces both fair and clear results. In our view, an application of the substantive tort law of the state in which the injury occurred, produces a result that is predictable and cannot be fairly described as anomalous.