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182 Wis. 203

Jefferis v. Austin

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided December 11, 1923

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1923-12-11

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“That parties to a contract may expressly or impliedly agree that the law of a jurisdiction . . . shall control is beyond question.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 383 Wis. 2d 63 - Cintas Corp. No. 2 v. Becker Property Services LLC

Relies on Milliken v. Pratt · International Harvester Co. of America v. McAdam · Brown v. Gates

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1923-12-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 2018

1 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

401923193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Eschweiler, J.

¶1It is conceded that if the liability of the defendant Mrs. Austin is to be determined under the lav/ of Wisconsin as it stood at the time of the making of *205these notes her defense oí coverture is good. If, however, the question is to be- detérmined under the law of the state of Illinois, the holding of the trial court that she is liable must be sustained. 'Such being the conceded situation, no reference to the several statutes or decisions of the two states on those points is necessary.

¶2The notes express to be made at Chicago and presumptively were delivered there.. They are made payable at Chicago. From these facts, and particularly the latter, the presumption arises that the parties to the transaction intended these notes to be Illinois contracts and subject, so far as questions might arise concerning the liability of the makers or indorsers thereof, to the law of Illinois rather than to the laws of the domicile of one or more of them or of the forum, other than Illinois, where relief might be sought. That parties to a contract may expressly or impliedly agree that the law of a jurisdiction other than that of the domicile or the place of signing shall control is- beyond question. Brown v. Gates, 120 Wis. 349, 352, 97 N. W. 221, 98 N. W. 205; International H. Co. v. McAdam, 142 Wis. 114, 118, 124 N. W. 1042.

¶3The mere fact that she signed these notes in Wisconsin at her husband's request and with the possible mental reservation of nevertheless preserving her freedom from liability by reason of the Wisconsin law as to coverture is not sufficient to overcome the well established rule that by promising to pay in Illinois she binds herself as to performance by the law of that state; there being nothing in her so doing contrary to any rule -of public policy on the grounds of good morals in the forum here. We consider her contention untenable and that the demurrer to her answer was properly sustained under such authorities as follows: E. L. Welch Co. v. Gillett, 146 Wis. 61, 130 N. W. 879; Blackley Nat. Bank v. Barry, 139 Wis. 96, 100, 120 N. W. 275; Milliken v. Pratt, 125 Mass. 374; Browns Valley State Bank v. Porter, 232 Fed. 434.

¶4By the Court. — Order affirmed.

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