DEPECAGE

(from the French term for to dissect) - is a term for the phenomenon where different aspects of a case involving a foreign element may be governed by different systems of laws. - the effect is to permit the courts to arrive at a functionally sound result to permit the courts to arrive at a functionally sound result without rejecting the methodology of the traditional approach.

HAUMSCHILD VS. CONTINENTAL CASUALTY FACTS: On November 17, 1956, plaintiff Jacquelyn Haumschild and respondent Le Roy Gleason were married in Lincoln county, Wisconsin, where they had their domicile. On March 10, 1958, such marriage was annulled. On December 19, 1956, the plaintiff was injured while riding in a motor truck driven by Gleason in California. Plaintiff then filed an action against Gleason and Continental Casualty Company to recover damages for personal injury sustained as a result of the motor vehicle accident. The defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the action on the grounds that under the California Law, one spouse is immune from suit, and that the plaintiff by her conduct is stopped to assert the invalidity of her marriage to Gleason. The circuit court granted the motion of the defendant, hence this appeal.

HELD: The court decided that the law of the place of accident, California, governed the issue of negligence while Wisconsin law governed the issue of interspousal immunity. The characterization process was taken one step further by not limiting the classification to the case itself but likewise, to the issues arising from the case. FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED IN CHOOSING THE APPLICABLE LAW: a. The needs of interstate and international system; b. Relevant policies of the forum; c. Relevant policies of other interested states and the relative interests of those states in the determination of a particular issue; d. Protection of the justified expectations of the parties; e. The basic policies underlying the particular field of law; f. Certainty, predictability and uniformity of results; and g. Ease in the determination and application of the law to be applied.