Opinion ID: 461620
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Full Faith and Credit of Foreign Law

Text: 17 Randall's complaint alleges a classic example of a transitory cause of action 5 that may be enforced in any foreign court having subject matter and in personam jurisdiction. See Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws Sec. 91 (1971). 6 We are guided in our analysis by a series of cases which, although distinguishable as involving the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 4, nonetheless provide the operating principles by which we may decide whether to give recognition to the Saudi Labor Law's exclusive jurisdiction provision. 7 18 In Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. v. George 233 U.S. 354, 34 S.Ct. 587, 58 L.Ed. 997 (1914), the United States Supreme Court decided the question of whether the Full Faith and Credit Clause prohibited the courts of Georgia from enforcing an employee's cause of action under the Alabama Code against his employer when another section of the Alabama Code provided that suits to enforce liability under the Code must be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction within the State of Alabama and not elsewhere. 233 U.S. at 359, 34 S.Ct. at 588 (emphasis in text). 19 The Court noted that there are cases where the right and the remedy are so united that the right cannot be enforced except in the manner and before the tribunal designated by the act. Id. But it held that, at least under the facts and the law of this case, venue is no part of the right; and a State cannot create a transitory cause of action and at the same time destroy the right to sue on that transitory cause of action in any court having jurisdiction. Id. at 360, 34 S.Ct. at 589. The Court also reasoned that the 20 [defendant] may have removed from the State [of Alabama] and it would be a deprivation of a fixed right if the plaintiff could not sue the defendant in Alabama because he had left the State nor sue him where the defendant or his property could be found because the statute did not permit a suit elsewhere than in Alabama. 21 Id. at 359, 34 S.Ct. at 588. 22 Fifty-one years later, in Crider v. Zurich Insurance Company, 380 U.S. 39, 85 S.Ct. 769, 13 L.Ed.2d 641 (1965), the United States Supreme Court held that it did not violate the Full Faith and Credit Clause for an Alabama state court to exercise jurisdiction and award damages under the worker's compensation act of the State of Georgia notwithstanding language in the statute purporting to provide an exclusive remedy which only the Georgia Compensation Board could award. The Court employed an interest analysis, an approach hinted at in cases such as Alaska Packers Assn. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 294 U.S. 532, 55 S.Ct. 518, 79 L.Ed. 1044 (1935), Pacific Employers Insurance Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 306 U.S. 493, 59 S.Ct. 629, 83 L.Ed. 940 (1939), and Carroll v. Lanza, 349 U.S. 408, 75 S.Ct. 804, 99 L.Ed. 1183 (1955), to reach the conclusion that the plaintiff could bring this action in Alabama. 23 The cause of action in the Alabama state court was based on an injury to an Alabama resident while he was working in Alabama. The plaintiff was employed in Alabama by Lawler Construction Company, Inc. and both parties were covered by the Georgia Worker's Compensation Act at the time. Crider, 380 U.S. at 39-40, 85 S.Ct. at 769-70. Crider held that the State of Alabama could, consistent with Due Process and Full Faith and Credit notions, adopt and enforce the remedy provided by Georgia law without referring the plaintiff back to a Georgia forum. 380 U.S. at 42-43, 85 S.Ct. at 770-71. 24 We have isolated two good reasons, which taken either separately or together, support our ruling in this case. First, the Saudi exclusive jurisdiction provision can fairly be characterized as procedural in nature and not part of the substantive Labor Law that Texas conflicts principles direct us to apply. 8 In a diversity case such as this one, a federal court must apply state substantive law (including its conflict of laws rules) to the merits of the case but it employs proper federal procedural standards. Falcon v. Autobuses Internacionales, 418 F.2d 673, 676 (5th Cir.1969). Further, it is left to the law of the forum to determine whether a law is substantive or procedural. 9 Rosales v. Honda Motor Co., Ltd., 726 F.2d 259 (5th Cir.1984); Scharf v. Cameron Offshore Services, 475 F.Supp. 48, 50 (W.D.La.1979); Federal Insurance Co. v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 448 F.Supp. 723, 725 (W.D.Va.1978). 25 Second, we find that the United States has an interest in providing a forum to its citizens especially when as here, Randall alleges that he was kept by ARAMCO from using the forum available to him in Saudi Arabia. ARAMCO contends that Saudi Arabia has an interest in keeping its labor disputes within the country and that providing a foreign forum to a disgruntled litigant will result in inconsistent interpretations of the Labor Law. We do not deny the validity of Saudi Arabia's interests. But we find paramount our interest in providing a forum to a United States citizen seeking to sue a United States corporation on a employment contract negotiated and made in the United States. In any event, our forum provides due regard for the interests of Saudi Arabia by using the substantive Labor Law as the rule of decision. 26 Finally, it stands to reason that if the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the land, does not compel one state from recognizing the exclusive jurisdiction provisions of a sister state, then we see little or no reason why in a transnational case such as this, where no higher positive law binds us, we should be compelled to give effect to a foreign state's exclusive jurisdiction provision. 27 ARAMCO contends that the Act of State Doctrine precludes us from not giving effect to the exclusive jurisdiction provision because that doctrine precludes courts of the United States from examining the validity of the public or governmental acts of a foreign sovereign. The Act of State Doctrine may function at the intersovereign level somewhat like the Full Faith and Credit Clause functions at our national level, but it does not apply here nor does it compel our enforcement of the Saudi Arabian exclusive jurisdiction provision. 28 Although often referred to as an international law doctrine, the Act of State Doctrine has constitutional underpinnings. See Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 423, 84 S.Ct. 923, 937-38, 11 L.Ed.2d 804 (1964). The concerns raised by Sabbatino regarding judicial interference with diplomatic relations are not at all implicated in this case. By refusing to enforce the exclusive jurisdiction provision of the Labor Law we are not judging the validity of that provision within the territorial sovereignty of Saudi Arabia in violation of the Act of State Doctrine. We are simply refusing to give that provision effect within our country and our courts.