Felix Frankfurter

“ No case in which we have ever 'abstained' from passing on difficult state questions offers the faintest support for the holding that a contention so unlikely to be sustained anywhere can be used as a reason to avoid passing on a constitutional question, even one much more serious than I see the one here to be.
The second state question that the Court is sending back, with the suggestion that the Court of Appeals should refer it to the Florida Supreme Court for decision, is almost equally devoid of plausibility. ”

“ In addition to the reasons already given for my view that Florida law constitutionally may govern this case-that Florida, the forum State, has sufficient contacts with the parties, the property insured and the lawsuit-I would add that when a contractual provision is one dealing with limitations on actions, it is particularly inappropriate to compel the forum State, as a constitutional matter, to apply the law of the place where the contract was 'made.' This Court has long recognized that the States where lawsuits are tried are free to apply their own statutes of limitations. ”

“ If 'maintaining proper harmony in federal-state relations' is the objective of the Court, I would think it best to give this statute its plain meaning and to settle the constitutionality of this statute Florida passed (according to its Attorney General) to protect its people.
In now come to the constitutional question which is avoided and which I would decide. This insurance contract was made in the State of Illinois. There are Illinois cases indicating that the contractual provision shortening the Illinois state statute of limitations might be treated as valid in a court of that State. ”

“ Insurance companies, like other contractors, do not confine their contractual activities and obligations within state boundaries. They sell to customers who are promised protection in States far away from the place where the contract is made. In this very case the policy was sold to Clay with knowledge that he could take his property anywhere in the world he saw fit without losing the protection of his insurance. ”

“ Since the contract of insurance here provided for a period of limitation shorter than the State's five-year period for unsealed, written contracts, [10] this contractual provision would be void under the Florida statute if it applies. [11] The only way to get ambiguity into this section is to import it. Statutes of a similar nature exist in 31 States and the District of Columbia. [12] They are in line with the protective safeguards that States have felt it necessary to create so as to preserve a fair opportunity for people who have bought and paid for insurance to go to court and collect it. ”

“ In 1952, petitioner, while a citizen and resident of Illinois, purchased from respondent in Illinois the contract of insurance upon which this suit is based. The respondent is a British company licensed to do business in Illinois, Florida, and nine other States.
The policy, which petitioner bought for a lump sum, ran for three years. Designated a 'Personal Property Floater Policy (World Wide) ,' it provides world-wide coverage against 'all risks' of loss or damage to the property covered, property generally classified as personal property having no fixed situs. ”

“ In the Dick case the Court's opinion carefully pointed out that the decision in that case might have been different had activities relating to the contract there held binding in Texas been carried on in that State. And in the Delta & Pine Land Co. case, we pointed out that the Court had considered that the Mississippi activities in connection with the policy sued on there were found to be so 'slight' and so 'casual' that Mississippi could not apply its own law. I, myself, have grave doubts that the Delta & Pine Land Co. case would be treated the same way today on its facts. ”

“ Without questioning either Dick, or Delta & Pine, the Court sustained Louisiana's application, in a suit by a Louisiana citizen, of its own 'direct action' statute although thereby it invalidated an express provision against direct liability of the insurer in a contract negotiated and paid for within Illinois and Massachusetts, in both of which the clause was valid. The contract insured Toni, an Illinois corporation distributing its product nationally, against liabilities arising from the use of the product. ”

“ A provision of the policy, which has given rise to this controversy, required that suit on any claim for loss must be brought within twelve months of the discovery of the loss.
Some months after purchasing the policy the petitioner moved to Florida, where he brought this suit for losses sustained in Florida in the winter of 1954-1955. Petitioner reported the losses to the respondent on February 1, 1955, and on April 1, 1955, respondent denied liability. ”

“ Constitutionally requiring blind and unvarying application of the internal law of the place of making is a return to outmoded territorial and vested rights theories of conflict of laws long ago outgrown by our jurisprudence.↑ See also McGee v. International Life Ins. ”