Young v. W. S. Badcock Corp

In Young v. W. S. Badcock Corp., 222 Ga. App. 218 (474 SE2d 87) (1996), the dealership agreement at issue contained the following choice-of-law provision: "This Agreement and the terms hereof shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida." Id. at 218-219 (1). The plaintiffs in that case filed an action for fraudulent misrepresentation, asserting that the defendant misrepresented amounts owing to plaintiffs under the dealership agreement and made other fraudulent charges not contemplated by the agreement. Id. at 218. In determining whether the agreement's choice-of-law provision applied to the plaintiffs' tort claim, we emphasized the importance of the language used in the provision. Specifically, the Court concluded that the plaintiffs' tort claim was not governed by the choice-of-law provision in the agreement, because the provision "did not state that any and all claims arising out of the relationship between the parties shall be governed by Florida law." Id. at 219 (1). Because the provision in Young limited itself to the terms of the agreement, Georgia law applied to the fraudulent representation claim because the representations allegedly occurred in Georgia. Id.