Venue, Transfer and Forum Non Conveniens: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Civil Procedure Topic 3, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
The statutory allocation of a case among districts that already have jurisdiction; it concerns convenience and locality rather than constitutional power, and it is waivable by the defendant.
Section 1391(b)(1)
Venue is proper in a district where any defendant resides, provided all defendants reside in the same state, which makes the residence prong unusable in multi-state defendant cases.
Section 1391(b)(2)
Venue is proper where a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or where a substantial part of the property at issue is located.
Fallback venue
Section 1391(b)(3) supplies venue in any district where a defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction, but only when no other district qualifies under the residence or events prongs.
Residence of a natural person
For venue an individual resides in the judicial district of domicile, so a person with multiple homes still has only one residence for venue purposes.
Corporate residence for venue
An entity resides in any district where it would be subject to personal jurisdiction for that action, which in multi-district states is measured district by district.
Alien venue rule
A defendant not resident in the United States may be sued in any district, and the presence of such a defendant is disregarded when determining venue for other defendants.
Substantial part standard
More than one district can satisfy the events prong; the plaintiff need not choose the district with the most contacts so long as the chosen one hosted meaningful events.
Rule 12(b)(3)
The motion to dismiss for improper venue, which like the personal jurisdiction defense must be raised in the first responsive motion or answer or it is waived.
Section 1406
When venue is improper the court must dismiss or, in the interest of justice, transfer the case to a district where it could have been brought, often saving a claim from limitations bar.
Goldlawr v. Heiman
A court may transfer under Section 1406 even if it lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendant, letting a plaintiff cure a filing mistake rather than lose the claim.
Section 1404(a)
Transfer for the convenience of parties and witnesses and in the interest of justice, available when venue is already proper and the case could have been brought in the transferee district.
Private interest factors
Access to proof, availability of compulsory process for unwilling witnesses, cost of attendance for willing witnesses, view of the premises, and other practical trial concerns.
Public interest factors
Court congestion, local interest in deciding local disputes, the forum's familiarity with governing law, and the burden of jury duty on a community with no connection to the case.
Plaintiff's choice of forum
A choice ordinarily receives substantial deference, but that deference shrinks when the plaintiff is foreign to the district or the operative facts occurred elsewhere.
Van Dusen v. Barrack
A Section 1404(a) transfer in a diversity case carries the transferor state's choice-of-law rules with it, so transfer changes courtrooms but not the applicable law.
Ferens v. John Deere Co.
The Van Dusen rule applies even when the plaintiff requests the transfer, preventing a change of law but also permitting some forum shopping before transfer.
Atlantic Marine Construction v. United States District Court
A valid forum selection clause makes transfer nearly automatic: the plaintiff's choice gets no weight, private factors are disregarded, and the original choice-of-law rules do not travel.
Forum non conveniens
The common law doctrine allowing dismissal, not transfer, when the far more convenient forum is a foreign country or a court outside the federal transfer system.
Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno
Dismissal to Scotland was upheld even though Scottish law was less favorable, since an unfavorable change in substantive law is not decisive unless the remedy is essentially no remedy.
Adequate alternative forum
The threshold requirement for forum non conveniens: the defendant must be amenable to process elsewhere and that forum must offer some remedy, though not an equally generous one.
Return jurisdiction clause
A condition attached to forum non conveniens dismissal requiring the defendant to consent to jurisdiction abroad and waive limitations defenses, so the plaintiff is not left remediless.
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert
The 1947 decision cataloguing the private and public interest factors that still structure both forum non conveniens and Section 1404(a) analysis.
Local action rule
The historical principle that suits concerning title to real property must be brought where the land lies, a rule now largely absorbed into the venue statutes.
Venue waiver by contract
Parties may agree in advance to litigate in a chosen district, and after Atlantic Marine such clauses are enforced through transfer rather than through a venue dismissal motion.