Court Opinion

ID: 9461996
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:29:25.797318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:21.133565
License: Public Domain

SNEED, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in the opinion. I should like, however, to add that in my opinion Oregon courts would reach the same result even if a true, as opposed to a false, conflict existed. That is, Oregon courts, upon finding a real conflict between the law of Kansas on the one hand and the laws of Oregon and Washington on the other, very likely would find that Washington had the most significant relationship with the accident and the parties involved.
I say this because the appellant is a resident of Washington and, more importantly, Washington is the place of the accident. Emphasis is laid on the place of the accident, not because of the wistfulness with which I regard those simple days in which the place of the tort rule governed these matters, but because I feel certain that Oregon would recognize that strict liability in tort primarily reflects a policy to provide compensation to those injured as a result of defective products rather than to deter improper conduct. The primacy of the purpose to provide compensation to victims in my judgment irresistibly swings the pointer of “most significant relationship” to the state of the accident. See George v. Douglas Aircraft, 332 F.2d 73, 76-77 (2d Cir. 1964).
This purpose, while certainly embracing the residents of the states which pursue it, not unreasonably can be said to extend to all injured within its borders. Almost all so injured to some extent make demands upon the resources of the state and its residents of the place of the accident. These demands plus the interest of the state adopting strict liability to prevent out of state manufacturers from entering the state, as Judge Friendly in George v. Douglas Aircraft put it, “on easier terms as to liability than the state establishes generally,” Id. at 77, clearly justify choice of the law of the place of the accident. Such state either has adopted strict liability in tort or it has not. If it has, its interests, particularly when the victim is its resident, clearly are “most significant.” If it has not, neither its residents nor any other victim should be entitled “to borrow” the “insurance coverage” that might be provided either by the state of manufacture or sale or by the law of the forum.