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Conflict of Laws Keyed to Hay, 16th Ed.
Ferens v. John Deere Co.
Citation:
494 U.S. 516, 110 S. Ct. 1274, 108 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1990)Facts
Albert Ferens suffered a severe injury when his hand became caught in a combine harvester manufactured by John Deere Company while working on his Pennsylvania farm. After Pennsylvania’s two-year statute of limitations expired for tort claims, Ferens filed contract and warranty claims in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where the limitations period had not yet run. Simultaneously, the Ferenses filed a separate diversity action for negligence and products liability in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, knowing that Mississippi courts would apply Pennsylvania substantive law but Mississippi’s six-year statute of limitations. Mississippi’s borrowing statute would not apply because Deere was already a corporate resident of Mississippi when the cause of action accrued. The Ferenses then moved to transfer the Mississippi action to Pennsylvania under Section 1404(a) for convenience, expecting Mississippi’s choice-of-law rules, including its statute of limitations, to follow the case to Pennsylvania.
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