Kenneth Haggard v. John Stevens

While I agree with the majority’s decision to affirm the dismissal of Plaintiffs’ suit, I write separately to clarify errors in the district court’s choice of law analysis and to highlight substantial issues regarding interstitial law in federal civil rights suits that remain unanswered by this panel’s decision.

The district court correctly concluded that we must look first to state law in answering the survivorship question at issue in this case.1 The district court also accurately identified the choice of law issue that arose as a result. However, for whatever (presumably strategic) reason,…