Opinion ID: 2381510
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: using the doctrine to kill the litigation altogether

Text: Both as a matter of law and of public policy, the doctrine of forum non conveniens is without justification. The proffered foundations for it are considerations of fundamental fairness and sensible and effective judicial administration. Hecht dissent, 786 S.W.2d 703 ( quoting Adkins v. Chicago, R.I. & Pac. R.R., 54 Ill.2d 511, 301 N.E.2d 729, 730 (1973)). In fact, the doctrine is favored by multinational defendants [4] because a forum non conveniens dismissal is often outcome-determinative, effectively defeating the claim and denying the plaintiff recovery. The contorted result of the doctrine of forum non conveniens is to force foreign plaintiffs to convince the court that it is more convenient to sue in the United States, while the American defendant argues that ... [the foreign court] is the more convenient forum. Note Foreign Plaintiffs and Forum Non Conveniens: Going Beyond Reyno, 64 Texas L.Rev. 193, 215, nn. 144-46 (1985). A forum non conveniens dismissal is often, in reality, a complete victory for the defendant. As noted in Irish Nat'l Ins. Co. v. Aer Lingus Teoranta, 739 F.2d 90, 91 (2d Cir.1984), [i]n some instances, ... invocation of the doctrine will send the case to a jurisdiction which has imposed such severe monetary limitations on recovery as to eliminate the likelihood that the case will be tried. When it is obvious that this will occur, discussion of convenience of witnesses takes on a Kafkaesque quality everyone knows that no witnesses ever will be called to testify. In using the term forum non conveniens, the courts have taken refuge in a euphemistic vocabulary, one that glosses over the harsh fact that such dismissal is outcome-determination in a high percentage of the forum non conveniens cases.... Robertson, Forum Non Conveniens in America and England: A Rather Fantastic Fiction, 103 L.Q.Rev. 398, 409 (1987). Empirical data available demonstrate that less than four percent of cases dismissed under the doctrine of forum non conveniens ever reach trial in a foreign court. [5] A forum non conveniens dismissal usually will end the litigation altogether, effectively excusing any liability of the defendant. The plaintiffs leave the courtroom without having had their case resolved on the merits. [6]