Opinion ID: 627440
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Forum State's Interest

Text: 17 Although the district court stated that it cannot be said that Washington State with its extensive maritime trade does not have an interest in an allision between a shipping vessel and an oil platform, this interest is no greater or more specific than that of any port city around the world. Asahi cautions against such an overly broad definition of a state's interest. Asahi, 480 U.S. at 114, 107 S.Ct. at 1033. Washington has no interest in this claim. The vessel involved in the accident was not sailing from Washington and carried no Washington cargo. Neither the accident nor the lawsuit's outcome has any effect on Washington or its residents. Nor is there even an arguable basis for the application of Washington law to an accident in Egyptian waters involving a Philippine-owned ship bound from Singapore to France and an oil platform owned jointly by an Egyptian instrumentality and a Delaware corporation with its only base of operations in Egypt. See id. at 115, 107 S.Ct. at 1033-34. The absence of a forum state interest weighs heavily against the reasonableness of Washington's assertion of jurisdiction.