## Facts

- Ella Marie Kliner sued individually and as executrix of William J. Kliner’s estate after William died in a workplace explosion.
- William J. Kliner was an Ohio resident and union member employed by Koppers Company, Inc. and assigned to work at Weirton Steel Company’s construction site on Brown’s Island in West Virginia.
- Kliner worked at the West Virginia site for about 18 months while commuting daily from Ohio.
- On December 15, 1972, an explosion at the West Virginia job site killed Kliner and 18 other workers.
- Plaintiff filed a diversity action in the Northern District of Ohio asserting wrongful death, the decedent’s surviving negligence claim, and funeral expenses.
- Weirton pleaded an affirmative defense that West Virginia’s wrongful-death statute capped damages at $110,000.
- Plaintiff moved to strike that defense, arguing Ohio law should govern damages and impose no such cap.

## Issues

1. In an Ohio federal diversity action for wrongful death arising from an out-of-state fatal injury, does Ohio’s conflicts law require application of the damages law of the state where the injury occurred?
2. Is West Virginia’s statutory wrongful-death damages cap a substantive limitation that applies under Ohio’s lex loci delicti rule?

## Decision

- The court applied Ohio’s choice-of-law rules under Klaxon.
- The court held Ohio follows lex loci delicti in tort actions, making the law of the place of injury controlling.
- Because the injury and death occurred in West Virginia, West Virginia substantive law governed the measure and limitation of wrongful-death damages.
- The court treated West Virginia’s $110,000 cap as a substantive component of the wrongful-death cause of action, not a procedural rule of the forum.
- Plaintiff’s motion to strike Weirton’s damages-cap defense was denied.

## Legal Principles

- In diversity, a federal court applies the forum state’s conflict-of-laws rules.
- Under Ohio tort conflicts rules, the substantive law of the place where the wrong occurred governs (lex loci delicti).
- Statutory limits on wrongful-death damages imposed by the state creating the cause of action are substantive and apply when that state is the place of injury and death.
- A federal court sitting in diversity must apply existing state conflicts doctrine and may not replace it with a more flexible approach absent clear direction from the state’s highest court.

## Conclusion

Because the fatal injury occurred in West Virginia and Ohio conflicts law follows lex loci delicti for torts, the court applied West Virginia’s wrongful-death damages statute, including its $110,000 cap, and refused to strike the defendant’s affirmative defense.


Kliner v. Weirton Steel Co., 381 F. Supp. 275 (N.D. Ohio 1974)