Opinion ID: 2508401
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Utah's public policy regarding duplicative litigation

Text: ¶ 29 Teton also contends that if Utah exercises jurisdiction, it will lead to duplicative litigation in contravention of Utah public policy. In support of this argument, Teton relies exclusively on Prows v. Pinpoint Retail Systems, Inc., 868 P.2d 809 (Utah 1993). In Prows, we refused to enforce a forum selection clause because, among other reasons, the clause would have required the plaintiff to proceed against codefendants in two different forums. Id. at 812-13. A bifurcated trial would have been necessary because only one of the two defendants would enjoy the protection of the forum selection clause and the other defendant would not have been subject to the personal jurisdiction of the selected forum. See id. The Prows court pointed out that [r]equiring a bifurcated trial on the same issues contravenes the objective of modern procedure, which is to litigate all claims in one action if that is possible. Id. at 813 (internal quotation omitted). ¶ 30 If Teton had possessed a viable lien in Wyoming, the policy concerns articulated in Prows may have been implicated. However, the Wyoming Supreme Court's dismissal of Teton's lien renders such concerns moot. As a result, it is not necessary to determine whether the possibility of related litigation in Wyoming would undermine the parties' express agreement to litigate all claims in Utah. ¶ 31 Given the above analysis, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by holding the forum selection clause enforceable. We must next determine whether that clause alone is sufficient to allow Utah to exercise jurisdiction over this dispute.