IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
*
DOSHIA DANIELS BURTON, et al., *
*
Plaintiffs *
*
v. * Civil Action No. 05-2214 (RCL)
*
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA *
*
Defendants *
*
PLAINTIFF’S REPLY BRIEF ON CHOICE OF LAW
The government makes one fundamental mistake in its choice of law analysis in this case.
It equates “place of the wrong” with “place of the wrongful conduct” under Maryland’s choice of
law doctrine of lex loci. The two are not synonymous. The fact is that Maryland’s lex loci rule
equates “place of the wrong” with “place of the injury.” Thus, to the extent this Court should
look to Maryland’s choice of law principles, as the defendant urges, that would result in
application of Maryland law.
In a simple car crash or police shooting case, the wrongful conduct and the injury occur
in the same jurisdiction, and there is no occasion for the court to differentiate what law applies
when the conduct occurs in one state but the injury in another. The Maryland courts, however,
uniformly look to the place of the injury for the substantive law to apply. See, e.g., Jones v.
Prince George’s County, 541 F.Supp.2d 761 (D. Md. 2008) (in case cited by the government, the
wrongful shooting by the police officer and the death of the decedent both occurred in Virginia,
and thus under Maryland’s choice of law rule, the court applied Virginia law). In the most recent
lex loci decision by Maryland’s highest court, Erie Ins. Exchange v. Heffernan, 399 Md. 598,
