Opinion ID: 208674
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Right to Mandamus Relief

Text: A court may deny a petition for mandamus [i]f the facts and circumstances are rationally capable of providing reasons for what the district court has done. Volkswagen, 545 F.3d at 317 n. 7 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also In re Cordis Corp., 769 F.2d 733, 737 (Fed.Cir.1985) (noting that if a rational and substantial legal argument can be made in support of the rule in question, the case is not appropriate for mandamus). Nevertheless, mandamus relief in § 1404(a) cases is permitted when the petitioner is able to demonstrate that the denial of transfer was a clear abuse of discretion such that refusing transfer produced a patently erroneous result. Volkswagen, 545 F.3d at 310. As explained above, there are a substantial number of witnesses with material and relevant information residing in either the transferee venue or the state of California who will be unnecessarily inconvenienced in having to travel to Texas to testify. In addition, two of the three parties are headquartered in the transferee venue or San Diego, California. Thus, transfer would reduce significantly any transportation of documents relating to the accused products. In addition, because a substantial number of witnesses reside within the venue, the Northern District of California will have the authority to compel these witnesses to appear at trial, if needed. There are no witnesses or parties within Texas. Moreover, there are no relevant documents there. Although a number of witnesses will be traveling from Europe, Iowa, and the East Coast, these witnesses would have to travel a significant distance in any event and would be only slightly more inconvenienced by having to travel to California. Thus, the convenience to the witnesses and parties, availability of compulsory attendance and access to evidence factors all weigh significantly in favor of transfer. In addition, as the district court noted, the local interest factor here also weighs in favor of transfer. To the extent that the court congestion factor and the issue of uncertainty of Sanofi's personal jurisdiction in the separate action can weigh against transfer, there is simply no rational argument that, in light of the witnesses, parties, evidence, compulsory attendance and local interest, the clearly more convenient venue is not the Northern District of California. In denying transfer, the district court clearly abused its discretion and produced a patently erroneous result. The district court (1) improperly applied the 100-mile rule; (2) improperly substituted its own central proximity for a measure of the convenience of the witnesses and parties, and documents; (3) rigidly applied the law to prevent transfer to the more convenient forum; (4) glossed over the compulsory process factor; and (5) erroneously weighed two essentially irrelevant considerations. The petitioners have also demonstrated that they have no other means of obtaining their request for relief. As we noted in TS Tech, it is clear under Fifth Circuit law that a party seeking mandamus for a denial of transfer clearly meets the `no other means' requirement. 551 F.3d at 1322. Moreover, a petitioner would not have an adequate remedy for an improper failure to transfer the case by way of an appeal from an adverse final judgment because the petitioner would not be able to show that it would have won the case had it been litigated in the other venue. Volkswagen, 545 F.3d at 319.