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Boudreau v. Baughman6/16/1987
In this appeal, plaintiff assigns as error the trial court's order allowing defendant's motion to amend the answer as well as the court's denial of plaintiff's motion to reconsider this order. Plaintiff also assigns as error the trial court's order granting summary judgment for defendant. For the reasons that follow, we find no error, and therefore, affirm.
A threshold issue as to each of plaintiff's assignments of error is what law should govern the trial court's determination. The record reveals the following facts: the individual defendant is a resident of North Carolina; the corporate defendant is a North Carolina corporation with its principal place of business in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; defendant designed the allegedly defective chair in North Carolina; the chair was manufactured in North Carolina by a High Point furniture manufacturer; an individual named Howard Berg purchased the allegedly defective chair in North Palm Beach, Florida; plaintiff, a resident of Massachusetts, alleges he was injured by the chair in Berg's condominium in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The general rule in North Carolina for cases involving a conflict of laws is that the lex loci, or law of the situs of the claim, determines the substantive rights of the parties, while the lex fori governs matters of remedy and procedure. Charnock v. Taylor, 223 N.C. 360, 26 S.E.2d 911, 148 A.L.R. 1126 (1943). However, it is well established that "'foreign law or rights based thereon will not be given effect or enforced if opposed to the settled public policy of the forum.'" Davis v. Davis, 269 N.C. 120, 125, 152 S.E.2d 306, 310 (1967) (citations omitted).
Plaintiff's first two assignments of error are based on the trial court's order allowing defendant to amend the answer. In considering these contentions, we apply North Carolina law because the lex fori governs the rules of pleading. Motor Co. v. Wood, 237 N.C. 318, 75 S.E.2d 312 (1953).
Rule 15(a) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure provides the following in relevant part:
A party may amend his pleading once as a matter of course at any time before a responsive pleading is served or, if the pleading is one to which no responsive pleading is permitted and the action has not been placed upon the trial calendar, he may so amend it at any time within 30 days after it is served. Otherwise a party may amend his pleading only by leave of court or by written consent of the adverse party; and leave shall be freely given when justice so requires.
A ruling on a party's motion to amend a pleading, where leave of court is required, is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial
judge. Mauney v. Morris, 316 N.C. 67, 340 S.E.2d 397 (1986). Such leave should be freely given unless the opposing party can establish it will be materially prejudiced by the amendment. Id. The ruling of the trial judge allowing leave to amend will not be reversed on appeal absent a showing of abuse of discretion. Id.
Although at the time defendant moved to amend the answer, plaintiff's claim may have been barred by the Florida four-year statute of limitations, Fla. Stat. Ann. ยง 95.11(3) (West 1982), plaintiff, not defendant, chose the forum. Plaintiff had access to information about the time and place of the purchase of the chair, and was charged with knowledge of the North Carolina statutes that could or would bar his action against defendant in North Carolina. According to defendant's brief, defendant had no knowledg
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