Opinion ID: 1975333
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence of the plaintiff's attempt to vex or harass

Text: The final private interest factor to be considered is whether the plaintiff seeks to vex or harass the defendant by his or her choice of forum. Asch v. Taveres, supra, 467 A.2d at 978. This court has recognized that dismissal may be warranted where a plaintiff chooses a particular forum, not because it is convenient, but solely in order to harass the defendant or take advantage of favorable law. Mills v. Aetna Fire Underwriters Insurance Co., supra, 511 A.2d at 14 (citation omitted). I see no sign of such harassment here. Beard claims that SMB brought this suit in the District of Columbia to vex and harass him. He concedes that the action was not originally brought for that purpose, but he maintains that once he raised his defense of fraud, SMB had an obligation to refile the suit in Texas instead. His argument seems to be that his filing of the motion to dismiss somehow converted SMB's properly brought action into an action brought solely to vex and harass. There is no legal or factual basis for such an argument. The purpose of the rule stated in Mills (and elsewhere) is to penalize the plaintiff who intentionally chooses to bring suit in an inconvenient forum solely to harass the defendant. The court's inquiry, therefore, must begin and end with an examination of the plaintiff's motives at the time the action was filed. Beard concedes that SMB did not file its complaint in the District of Columbia solely to harass him; as he says in his brief, the suit started out with good intentions.... Indeed, the record suggests that SMB chose the District of Columbia in an effort to bring about a fair, speedy, and inexpensive end to this litigation. There is no evidence in the record, or even a proffer, that SMB chose to sue in the District of Columbia in an attempt to vex or harass Beard. The trial court could not reasonably have concluded otherwise.