Opinion ID: 1913934
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Forum Selection Clauses

Text: Consensual adjudicatory procedure denotes the ability of potential or prospective litigants to choose, in advance of any litigation, the court that will hear the dispute and the law that will govern the substantive merits of the litigation. Linda S. Mullenix, Another Choice of Forum, Another Choice of Law: Consensual Adjudicatory Procedure in Federal Court, 57 Fordham L.Rev. 291, 296, note 10 (1988). It is essentially a doctrine of procedural choices by consent of the parties. These choices and this consent are typically manifested in forum-selection clauses and choice-of-law clauses contained in an agreement between the parties. Mullenix, supra note 11, at 296. Although these agreements affect basic procedural rights, their interpretation is nonetheless inevitably based in contract law. Sometimes, the issues surrounding a forum selection clause are further complicated by the presence of an accompanying choice-of-law provision. However, when confronted with a combined forum selection clause and choice-of-law provision, most courts construe the forum selection clause without reference to the choice-of-law provision. Mullenix, supra note 294, at 347. The construction of forum selection clauses by a non-selected forum implicates full faith and credit issues, including subsequent collateral attack. Mullenix, supra note 337, at 354. It follows from the established characterization of the choice-of-law issue as federal substantive law that the validity and interpretation of choice-of-law clauses in maritime contracts is also a matter of federal law. Robertson, supra note 261, at 729. On the other hand, the validity and interpretation of forum selection clauses may well be regarded as a procedural matter that is entirely controlled by state law. Robertson, supra note 262, at 729. The distinction between the two types of clauses has a useful analogy in the jurisprudence holding that while parties to a dispute generally cannot confer or withhold judicial jurisdiction by contract or stipulation, they can choose the substantive law that governs their dispute. Robertson, supra note 264, at 730. There are conflicting decisions by courts in this state as to whether or not a case can be conditionally dismissed by virtue of a forum selection clause in a seaman's contract of employment. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal allowed dismissal in Barcelona v. Sea Victory Maritime, Inc. [6] and Prado v. Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts, A.G. [7] as did the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal in the instant case. See Lejano v. Bandak, 688 So.2d at 86. However, the Fifth Circuit subsequently refused to enforce a forum selection clause in a seaman's contract in Madrid v. Polembros Maritime Co., Ltd., 95-0545 (La.App. 5 Cir. 1995), 660 So.2d 955.