Case Name: Lau, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Chicago & North Western Railway Company, Defendant: Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, Defendant and Appellant
Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Wisconsin
Decision Date: 1961-10-03
Citations: 14 Wis. 2d 329
Docket Number: 
Parties: Lau, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Chicago & North Western Railway Company, Defendant: Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, Defendant and Appellant.
Judges: I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Fairchild concurs in this opinion.
Reporter: Wisconsin Reports Second
Volume: 14
Pages: 329–341

Head Matter:
Lau, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Chicago & North Western Railway Company, Defendant: Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, Defendant and Appellant.
September 6 —
October 3, 1961.
The cause was submitted for the appellant on the briefs of Quarles, Herriott & Clemons, attorneys, and Lester S. Clemons and William K. McKibbage of counsel, all of Milwaukee, and for the respondent on the brief of Nathaniel D. Rothstein, attorney, and Paulsen, Wake & Prosser of counsel, all of Milwaukee.

Opinion:
Brown, J.
In Huck v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co. (1958), 4 Wis. (2d) 132, 90 N. W. (2d) 154, the Rock Island Railroad presented facts practically identical to those which Mo Pac now brings before us concerning the character and extent of its activities in this state. After careful consideration of the decisions bearing upon the subject we determined that the solicitation activities of Rock Island in this state were of such substantial and extensive nature as to constitute the doing of business within the state under the provisions of sec. 262.09 (4), Stats. 1957, and subjecting Rock Island to the jurisdiction of the Wisconsin court does not offend the commerce clause of the United States constitution nor the due-process requirement of the Fourteenth amendment. See also Dettman v. Nelson Tester Co. (1959), 7 Wis. (2d) 6, 13, 95 N. W. (2d) 804; Bond v. Harrel (1961), 13 Wis. (2d) 369, 371, 108 N. W. (2d) 552.
In that case Rock Island's soliciting activities did not contribute to the plaintiff's cause of action, precisely as in the case at bar. Nevertheless appellant contends here that "it would be a violation of federal due process for the Wisconsin courts to exercise jurisdiction over Missouri Pacific because the cause of action alleged did not arise out of its solicitation activity in Wisconsin." Whatever favor might ever have been accorded that proposition, the law was settled to the contrary by Perkins v. Benquet Consolidated Mining Co. (1952), 342 U. S. 437, 72 Sup. Ct. 413, 96 L. Ed. 485. The court then held that the due-process clause of the Fourteenth amendment did not prohibit the state court from taking jurisdiction although defendant's activities in the state were in no way related to plaintiff's cause of action. And see the annotation to that case appearing at page 496 of 96 L. Ed.
Expressly recognizing that Rock Island's activities in Wisconsin were unconnected with the accident which produced the injury we reaffirm our decision in Huck v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co., supra.
As far as it goes, Huck rules the case at bar, that is, Mo Pac's solicitation activities bring it within the jurisdiction of a Wisconsin court. But Mo Pac points out that in Huck the court was not called upon to consider nor did it pass upon any contention that Wisconsin's jurisdiction might be defeated because of a foreign defendant's inconvenience in presenting its defense in Wisconsin.
Assuming that the nonresident has been properly served with process in the action, "due process requires only that in order to subject a defendant to a judgment in personam, if he be not present within the territory of the forum, he have certain minimum contacts with it such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend 'traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.' " Stone, C. J., in International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945), 326 U. S. 310, 316, 66 Sup. Ct. 154, 90 L. Ed. 95. Appellant here does not assert that service of process was defective. Mo Pac's contacts with Wisconsin are the same as Rock Island's were in Huck. The maintenance of this suit in Wisconsin does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. Valid service of process plus existence of minimal contacts initially satisfy the requirements of due process in maintaining the action in a Wisconsin court. Jurisdiction by Wisconsin has then been acquired. Subsequently the question of whether the previously acquired jurisdiction should be retained is to be resolved in a consideration of jorum non conveniens.
As "estimate of the inconveniences" which would result to the corporation from a trial away from its home or principal place of business is a factor relevant to the fairness and substantial justice of requiring the corporation to stand trial in the state where the action was brought. International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, at page 317. Judge Learned Hand of the United States court of appeals, second circuit, in Latimer v. S/A Industrias Reunidas F. Matarazzo (2d Cir. 1949), 175 Fed. (2d) 184, 186, held that International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert (1947), 330 U. S. 501, 67 Sup. Ct. 839, 91 L. Ed. 1055, and Koster v. Lumbermens Mut. Casualty Co. (1947), 330 U. S. 518, 67 Sup. Ct. 828, 91 L. Ed. 1067, determined that the plea of forum non conveniens was always open to a defendant in a case depending upon diverse citizenship even where the personal jurisdiction was unquestioned. Judge Hand concluded that these decisions answer any constitutional objection to dispensing with the aforesaid "estimate of the inconveniences" factor because the nonresident corporation could relieve itself of any oppressive prejudice by recourse to the plea, forum non conveniens. Hence, for practical purposes, he said, it will be enough if the factor of inconvenience to the defendant by trial in the state where suit is brought be tried out along with a plea, forum non conveniens.
Mo Pac's motion is to quash the service of summons and dismiss the action on the ground that the inconvenience which that defendant would encounter in defending this action in the courts of Wisconsin is such as to render a trial in that forum a denial of defendant's rights under the due-process clause of the Fourteenth amendment. That motion, resting on the alleged inconvenience to defendant of trial in that forum, is in substance a plea of forum non conveniens which plea, as Judge Hand asserted, supra, is constitutionally adequate to determine whether trial in this state would be unconstitutionally, prejudicially oppressive to the defendant. The circuit court treated Mo Pac's motion as tantamount to a plea of forum non conveniens and applied the principles appropriate to that plea. A¥e think the learned trial court did so correctly.
Mr. Justice Jackson discussed these principles in the majority opinion in Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert (1947), 330 U. S. 501, 508 and following, 67 Sup. Ct. 839, 91 L. Ed. 1055. Among them we quote, from page 508:
"An interest to be considered, and the one likely to be most pressed, is the private interest of the litigant. Important considerations are the relative ease of access to sources of proof; availability of compulsory process for attendance of unwilling, and the cost of obtaining attendance of willing, witnesses; possibility of view of premises, if view would be appropriate to the action; and all other practical problems that make trial of a case easy, expeditious, and inexpensive. There may also be questions as to the enforcibility of a judgment if one is obtained. The court will weigh relative advantages and obstacles to fair trial. It is often said that the plaintiff may not, by choice of an inconvenient forum, 'vex,''harass,' or 'oppress' the defendant by inflicting upon him expense or trouble not necessary to his own right to pursue his remedy. But unless the balance is strongly in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff's choice of forum should rarely be disturbed."
In his opinion in Kilpatrick v. Texas & P. R. Co. (2d Cir. 1948), 166 Fed. (2d) 788, 790, 791, Judge Hand interprets Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, supra, as empowering or directing the trial court to "balance the conflicting interests involved: i.e., whether the gain to the plaintiff retaining the action where it was, outweighed the burden imposed upon the defendant; or vice versa. That question is certainly indistinguishable from the issue of Jorum non con-veniens.' . . . when a railroad or any other corporation is doing business continuously outside the state of its incorporation, that 'presence' which subjects it to personal service in actions for which no venue is specifically provided, depends upon the issue of Jorum non conveniens.' "
The learned trial court properly considered the disadvantages and inconveniences of each party in a trial in a Wisconsin court, balancing the respective interests of the plaintiff and of Mo Pac. We consider that the expense or inconvenience accruing to the defendant in a trial here does not outweigh that imposed on the plaintiff by a trial elsewhere, nor is there any probability that justice can be better served in another forum than Wisconsin where the accident took place. Mo Pac stresses the expense incident to bringing to Wisconsin its two train crews who had handled the freight car while it was in Mo Pac's possession and control in Nebraska. On the other hand, if plaintiff must try his case in Nebraska or Missouri plaintiff will have similar travel expense for his witnesses — eyewitnesses to the accident — and his numerous medical witnesses. Moreover, Mo Pac's witnesses are its own employees and presumably amenable to its directions to attend wherever the trial is had, while plaintiff has no such similar ability to produce his witnesses in a trial away from Wisconsin. To repeat, the plaintiff's choice of forum should rarely be disturbed and in our view, as in that of the learned trial court, this is not one of those rare occasions.
We conclude that Judge Drechsler's order denying Mo Pac's motion should be affirmed.
By the Court. — Order affirmed.