Forum Non Conveniens

• Author: International Law Group

An air cargo aircraft crashed shortly after take off from Manta, Ecuador, into a neighboring town, killing 30 Ecuadorian residents on the ground. As a result of the fatal crash, more than 700 individuals brought about 100 lawsuits against the owner, Million Air, Inc., a U.S. company. In 1997, 36 of these cases were consolidated in the Southern District of Florida. In 1998, the court dismissed the consolidated cases on the basis of the forum non conveniens doctrine.

In December of 1998, the plaintiffs in the present case filed their complaint in the Southern District of Florida. Defendants later moved for dismissal based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Plaintiffs argued, in pertinent part, that the legal system in Ecuador was in turmoil and therefore could not provide an effective forum to decide the case. In addition, plaintiffs urged that a newly enacted Ecuadorian law (Law No. 55) precluded bringing the case in an Ecuadorian court, thereby rendering plaintiffs without legal recourse. The district court dismissed the case, and this appeal ensued. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirms.

The district court had also addressed the plaintiffs contentions as to the effects of a law enacted by the Ecuadorian legislature soon after the plane crash. The Ecuadorian law (Law No. 55) stated in pertinent part that "[I]n case of International concurrent jurisdiction, the plaintiff can freely choose to demand, in Ecuador or in another country, with the sole exception of cases which, pursuant to an explicit provision of law, must be resolved by Ecuadorian Judges, like the divorce of an Ecuadorian citizen¼In the case that the demand is filed outside of Ecuador, the national competence and the jurisdiction of the Ecuadorian Judges on the case will be terminated forever." [Slip op. 3]

In analyzing the lower court's dismissal of the case at hand, the Court of Appeals requires the defendants to show that "1) there was an adequate alternative forum, 2) that the balance of private interests and public interests weighed in favor of dismissing the litigation to the alternative forum (with the public interests coming into play only where the private interests were at or near 'equipoise'), and that there would be no inconvenience or...