Forum Non Conveniens

• Author: International Law Group

In June 2001, a vehicle accident on a Mexican national highway injured several Mexican citizens (plaintiffs). The crash allegedly involved a defective General Motors (GM) vehicle and a Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (Cooper) tire. The Plaintiffs sued, inter alia, GM, Cooper, and the driver of the vehicle.

The district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' claim on forum non conveniens grounds without first deciding whether it had subject matter jurisdiction over the case. Plaintiffs duly took an appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in a per curiam opinion, vacates and remands.

The Court notes, first, that the district courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Therefore, they have to be alert to the alleged bases of its subject matter jurisdiction before proceeding with a given case. Here, the district court should first have considered subject matter jurisdiction before addressing the forum non conveniens motion.

The present Court concedes that the Second and District of Columbia Circuits have reached a contrary result. "... [B]oth Circuits label forum non conveniens as a non-merits issue and so hold valid the process of using forum non conveniens as a grounds for dismissal where subject matter jurisdiction has not first been decided. For the following reasons, we disagree with this analysis. [...]."

"'The forum non conveniens inquiry consists of several steps.' First, the defendant invoking the doctrine must establish that there is an alternate forum both available and adequate. An available forum is one where the case and all the parties can come within its jurisdiction ... [emphasis in original]'"

"'Having established an available and adequate forum, the defendant must then show that certain private factors support dismissal.

These private factors are: (1) the relative ease...