Study Questions of Virginia Choice-of-Law Cases


McMillan v. McMillan

1) Is the court right to point to a case of inconsistency in New York courts' application of interst analysis (in Babcock and Kell) to show that modern approaches are too unpredictable?  Consider what Doug Rendleman has to say in McMillan v. McMillan: Choice of Law in a Sinkholke, 67 Va. L. Rev. 315, 324-25 (1981): "Babcock and Kell are poor representatives of the current choice-of-law method. Like many judicial innovations, the Babcock opinion was imprecisely stated because the court wrote on a clean slate. As such, the opinion 'produced inevitable confusion in the later cases.' Other courts have been careful to learn from New York's mistakes and have developed the consensus reflected in the Second Restatement."

2) Why don't Levy v. Daniels' U-Drive or Haumschild or Grant v. McAuliffe show that the place of the wrong rule is unpredictable too?

Jones v. R.S. Jones & Assoc.

1) What happened to the predictability of the 1st Restatement approach?

Buchanan v. Doe

1) What happened to the predictability of the 1st Restatement approach?!!

2) How can the case be a contract action, since it is not against the insurance company? Furthermore, unlike in Levy, the John Doe defendant is not a third party beneficiary to the insurance contract.

3) In speaking of “our understanding of the purpose of UM insurance,” isn’t the majority engaging in interest analysis?

4) Do you think it is chance that the Virginia plaintiff got the law he wanted in both Jones and Buchanan?

5) In recommending that one look to conflicts cases in which West Virginia determined the scope of its physical contact requirement (not to mention in appealing to the public policy exception), isn’t the concurrence engaging in interest analysis?

6) Why isn’t the physical contact requirement a matter of procedure, rather than tort or contract?

Dreher v. Budget Rent-a-Car

1) Do you think it's chance that the Virginia plaintiff got the law he wanted?

2) What happened to the predictability of the 1st Restatement approach?!!

3) Not much more to say about this case, except that the Virginia Supreme Court relied on the oldest characterization trick in the book.