Opinion ID: 2165909
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: original proceedings in prohibition

Text: LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge. Relators McDonald's Corporation and C & S Marshfield, Inc., are defendants in a tort suit pending in Jackson County. Relator McDonald's Corporation and Kris Davison, Inc., are defendants in another tort suit also pending in Jackson County. Neither C & S Marshfield, Inc., nor Kris Davison, Inc., can be found in Jackson County; their offices and operations are in Webster and Taney Counties, respectively. Relators in both cases filed motions for change of venue that were denied by respondent judges. Relators filed petitions for extraordinary relief, and this Court issued its preliminary writ in both cases. This Court consolidates these cases for purposes of its opinion because they present an identical question of law: do the McDonald's restaurants operated by franchisees in Jackson County constitute an office or an agent for the transaction of the usual and customary business of their franchisor, relator McDonald's Corporation, when McDonald's Corporation itself does not sell McDonald's products or own franchises but is exclusively engaged in licensing franchise rights to entities that wish to become McDonald's franchisees and in leasing or sub-leasing real estate on which they will conduct their McDonald's franchise business. Because this Court finds that the McDonald's restaurants in Jackson County are not offices or agents for the transaction of McDonald's Corporation's usual and customary business, the preliminary writs are made absolute.