IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

TAMRA R. RIVERA :

f/k/a TAMRA R. WARNER, :

Plaintiff, : CIVIL ACTION NO. 03-CV-4112

:

v. :

:

EQUIFAX INFORMATION SERVICES, :

LLC, :

and :

EQUIFAX, INC., :

and :

TRANS UNION, LLC, :

and :

GMAC, :

Defendants. :

MEMORANDUM ORDER

GREEN, S.J. April 1, 2004 

Presently pending are Defendants’ Motion to Transfer Venue and Plaintiff’s opposition

thereto. After careful consideration, this Court finds that pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1404(A),

Defendants’ Motion to Transfer Venue to the Southern District of Florida should not be granted.

Plaintiff filed this action for damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the

federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), defamation, common law negligence, and the

Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (“PA CPL”).

Defendants GMAC and Equifax argue that this Court lacks personal jurisdiction over

them. GMAC is a Delaware Corporation with its principal place of business in Detroit,

Michigan, and regularly conducts business in Pennsylvania. Accordingly, this Court clearly has

personal jurisdiction over GMAC. Equifax is a Georgia Corporation with no offices in this

District. Nonetheless, as a national credit bureau that regularly conducts business in

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Pennsylvania, I am satisfied that this Court may exercise personal jurisdiction over Equifax.

The Court also finds that the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is a proper venue. Pursuant

to 28 U.S.C. §1404(a), however, “[f]or the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interest

of justice, a district court may transfer any civil action to any other district or division where it

might have been brought.” Where venue is properly laid, a Plaintiff’s choice of forum will not

be disturbed lightly. Under Jumara v. State Farm Ins. Co., 55 F.3d 873, 879 (3rd Cir. 1995), a

district court should consider a variety of factors when weighing its discretionary authority to

transfer venue. A court may consider private interests; including the plaintiff’s choice of forum;

defendants’ preference; whether the claim arose elsewhere; convenience of the parties;

convenience of witnesses; the location of pertinent records; practical considerations to make the

trial easy, expeditious or inexpensive; comparative administrative difficulty in the two competing

fora; the local interest in deciding local controversies at home and public policy of the fora; and

the familiarity of the trial judge with applicable state law. Jumara, 55 F.3d at 879.

In the instant matter, Plaintiff is a resident of the Southern District of Florida. While

some of the witnesses and records may be located in Florida, she chose the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania as the forum for this matter. Jumara advises that a Plaintiff’s choice of forum is to

be afforded deference and should not be disturbed absent factors that affirmatively show another

forum is more convenient for the parties and witness. Id. at 879. While the fact that the alleged

violations and subsequent damages may have occurred in another district is a factor to be

considered, it is not controlling under Jumara. Furthermore, Defendants failed to demonstrate

that the Eastern District of Pennsylvania would be more inconvenient than the Southern District

of Florida. On balance, after considering the public and private factors, this Court finds that the

Defendants as movants have not met their burden of establishing the need for transferring this

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case to another district. It appears that trial of this matter is equally convenient in either district. 

AND NOW, this __________ day of April 2004, upon consideration of Defendants’

Motion to Transfer Venue and Plaintiff’s opposition thereto, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that

Defendants’ Motion is DENIED.

BY THE COURT:

_________________________________________

Clifford Scott Green, S.J.

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