Boone v. Boone
Supreme Court of South Carolina
546 S.E.2d 191 (S.C. 2001)
Juanita Boone (plaintiff) was injured in a Georgia car accident caused by her husband Freddie (defendant); both were South Carolina residents. Juanita sued Freddie in South Carolina, but the trial court applied Georgia law — which bars personal-injury suits between spouses under interspousal immunity — and dismissed her complaint. Juanita appealed, and the South Carolina Supreme Court took up whether applying Georgia's immunity rule violated South Carolina public policy.
Whether South Carolina's choice-of-law rules require applying another state's interspousal immunity law to bar a South Carolina spouse's personal-injury suit against the other spouse, when doing so conflicts with South Carolina's own public policy.