CONFLICT OF LAWS UNITED AIRLINES INC VS CA

G.R. No. 124110 April 20, 2001UNITED AIRLINES, INC.,Petitioner vs.

COURT OF APPEALS, ANICETO FONTANILLA,

in his personal capacity and in behalf of his minor son

MYCHAL ANDREW FONTANILLA, Respondents.

FACTS:

Aniceto Fontanilla bought from United Airlines,through the Philippine Travel Bureau in Manila,

three “Visit the U.S.A.” tickets from himself, his wife and his minors on, Mychal, to visit the cities of Washington DC, Chicago and Los Angeles.All flights had been confirmed previously by United Airlines.

Having used the first coupon to DC and while at the Washington Dulles Airport, Anice to changed their itinerary, paid the penalty for rewriting their tickets and was issued tickets with corresponding boarding passes with the words: “Check-in-required.” They were then set to leave but were denied boarding because the flight was overbooked. The CA ruled that private respondents’ failure to comply with the check-in requirement will not defeat his claim as the denied boarding rules were not complied with applying the laws of the USA, relying on the Code of Federal Regulation Part on Oversales of  the USA

ISSUE: WON the CA is correct in applying the laws of USA.

HELD:  No.

According to the doctrine of “lex loci contractus”, the law of the place where a contract is made or entered into governs with respect to its nature and validity, obligation and interpretation shall govern. This has been said to be the rule even though the place where the contract was made is different from the place where it is to be performed. Hence, the court should apply the law of the place where the airline ticket was issued, where the passengers are residents and nationals of the forum and the ticket is issued in such State by the defendant airline. Therefore, although, the contract of carriage was to be performed in the United States, the tickets were purchased through petitioner’s agent in Manila. It is true that the tickets were "rewritten" in D.C.,however, such fact did not change the nature of the original contract of carriage entered Into by the parties in Manila.