Source: http://co.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20180709_0000816.DCO.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:28:06+00:00

Document:
IOMNIS SURVEILLANCE SOLUTIONS, LLC, Defendant.
This matter is before the Court on Defendant's Motion to Transfer Venue [#18](the “Motion”). Plaintiff filed a Response [#32] in opposition to the Motion [#18]. No. Reply was filed. The Court has reviewed the Motion [#18], the Response [#32], the entire case file, and the applicable law, and is sufficiently advised in the premises. For the reasons set forth below, the Motion [#18] is GRANTED.
Plaintiff alleges that in February 2015 he entered into an employment agreement with Defendant. Am. Compl. [#33] ¶ 21. From 2015 until early 2017, Plaintiff worked as President of Iomnis Professional Solutions, a subsidiary of Defendant. Id. ¶ 20. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant only made two of twenty-eight required salary payments to him and failed to reimburse his expenses. Id. ¶ 23.
To the extent it is necessary to resolve any disputes arising under this Agreement, the Parties to this Agreement agree that jurisdiction and venue in any action brought pursuant to this Agreement to enforce its terms or otherwise with respect to the relationships between the Parties shall properly lie in, and only in, the state and federal courts of Harris County, Texas.
“For the convenience of the 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.” 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Generally, the movant bringing a motion for transfer under § 1404(a) “bears the burden of establishing that the existing forum is inconvenient.” Chrysler Credit Corp. v. Country Chrysler, Inc., 928 F.2d 1509, 1515 (10th Cir. 1991). However, when a § 1404(a) motion is based on a valid forum-selection clause, the motion to transfer should be granted absent “extraordinary circumstances unrelated to the convenience of the parties.” Atl. Marine Constr. Co. v. United States Dist. Court, 571 U.S. 49, 52 (2013). A valid forum-selection clause requires the court to adjust its analysis in three ways. Id. at 63. First, the plaintiff's choice of forum merits no weight. Id. “As the party defying the forum-selection clause, the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing that transfer to the forum for which the parties bargained is unwarranted.” Id. Second, the court may only consider public-interest factors and not the parties' private interests. Id. at 64. “When parties agree to a forum-selection clause, they waive the right to challenge the preselected forum as inconvenient or less convenient for themselves or their witnesses, or for their pursuit of the litigation.” Id. Third, “when a party bound by a forum-selection clause flouts its contractual obligation and files suit in a different forum, . . . transfer of venue will not carry with it the original venue's choice-of-law rules.” Id. “Because [public-interest] factors will rarely defeat a transfer motion, the practical result is that the forum-selection clauses should control except in unusual cases.” Id.
In assessing Plaintiff's argument that the forum-selection clause is not controlling, the Court addresses three issues: (1) whether there is a valid contract; (2) whether the contract was repudiated; and (3) whether repudiation excuses a party from performing conditions precedent to a contract.
The first issue to address is whether there is a valid contract. See Mortg. Plus, Inc. v. DocMagic, Inc., No. 03-2582-GTV-DJW, 2004 WL 2331918, at *2 (D. Kan. Aug. 23, 2004). Defendant claims that “Plaintiff and Defendant entered into an agreement” and that “Plaintiff presumably performed under other provisions of the contract.” Sched. Order [#24] at 3-4. Plaintiff alleges that he worked under a signed employment agreement. Am. Compl. [#33] ¶ 21. Thus, both parties seem to admit that there was an employment agreement, and therefore the Court finds that there is a valid contract, solely for purposes of the present Motion [#18].

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