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Nierman v. Hyatt Corporation11/7/2003
' claims. The plaintiffs are not out-of-State forum shoppers; they are Massachusetts residents, and the impact of their injuries will be felt in this State. Massachusetts has an interest in providing an opportunity for resident plaintiffs to seek compensation for personal injuries. Moreover, although Hyatt is not a citizen of Massachusetts, it has an ongoing, significant business presence here of the same noncitizen character as its business presence in Texas. For that reason, the interest of Massachusetts in affording a forum to its resident plaintiffs is not undercut by any interest Massachusetts may have in maintaining comity with a sister State. Because Hyatt is not exclusively, or even principally, based in Texas, it does not fall within the ambit of any protection that Texas may wish to afford to local defendants from the prosecution of what Texas, but not Massachusetts, perceives to be stale claims. Cf. Cosme v. Whitin Mach. Works, Inc., 417 Mass. 643, 648-649 (1994). By allowing the claim to go forward, Massachusetts can advance its interest in providing its citizens with an opportunity to maintain their action without offending Texas policy concerns.
That is not to say that in every case when a Massachusetts resident files suit in our local courts the Massachusetts statute of limitations invariably will apply. For example, as illustrated by Kahn v. Royal Ins. Co., 429 Mass. at 574-575, there may be cases where Massachusetts plaintiffs purposefully have placed themselves outside the substantial interest of the Commonwealth in the enforcement of their claims. Because each case will turn on its own constellation of facts, Massachusetts residents with claims of a multi-State character would be well advised to take account of all potentially applicable statutes of limitations and to err on the side of caution when filing suit.
3. Conclusion.
The judgment for Hyatt is reversed, and the case is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.
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