## Facts

- Ben A. Jones, Sr., a Virginia resident, died on October 12, 1987, when the private airplane he piloted crashed on takeoff in Pompano Beach, Florida.
- The aircraft was owned by R.S. Jones & Associates, Inc., a Virginia corporation.
- Piedmont Aviation, Inc. performed maintenance on the aircraft from time to time.
- The estate’s administrator filed a wrongful death action in Virginia circuit court on October 5, 1989.
- Defendants raised statute of limitations defenses; after a venue objection, the case was transferred to another Virginia circuit court.

## Issues

1. Whether the substantive wrongful death right was governed by Florida law (place of the tort) or Virginia law.
2. Whether a Virginia court should apply Florida’s two-year wrongful death limitations period or Virginia’s limitations law.
3. If Virginia limitations law applies, whether the action falls under Virginia’s two-year wrongful death limitations statute or Virginia’s one-year catch-all limitations statute.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed dismissal as time-barred.
- Florida law governed the existence and nature of the wrongful death claim because the death occurred in Florida under Virginia’s lex loci delicti rule.
- Virginia limitations law applied because statutes of limitations are treated as procedural in Virginia, and Florida’s wrongful death limitations period was not treated as part of the substantive right.
- Virginia’s two-year wrongful death limitations statute did not apply because the claim was not an action brought under Virginia’s wrongful death statute.
- The one-year catch-all limitations statute applied, barring the suit filed nearly two years after death.

## Legal Principles

- Virginia applies lex loci delicti to substantive tort issues: the law of the place of the wrong governs the right and cause of action.
- In Virginia conflicts rules, statutes of limitations are generally procedural and governed by the forum (lex fori), unless the foreign limitations period is an integral part of the foreign-created right.
- Virginia’s wrongful death limitations statute applies only to actions brought under Virginia’s wrongful death statute, not to foreign wrongful death causes of action litigated in Virginia.
- When no other Virginia limitations period specifically covers the claim, Virginia’s catch-all limitations statute governs.

## Conclusion

The court held that Florida law supplied the wrongful death cause of action, but Virginia supplied the limitations rule; because the action was not brought under Virginia’s wrongful death statute, Virginia’s one-year catch-all limitations period applied and barred the suit.


Jones v. R.S. Jones & Assocs., Inc., 431 S.E.2d 33 (Va. 1993)