Opinion ID: 3048591
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: bureau veritas entities

Text: We first examine whether the district court properly dismissed the Bureau Veritas entities. We review for an abuse of discretion a dismissal based on a forum selection clause. Murphy v. Schneider Nat’l Inc., 362 F.3d 1133, 1137 (9th Cir. 2004) (as amended). The trial court must draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Id. at 1138. However, the pleadings need not be accepted as true, and the court may consider facts outside the pleadings. Id. at 1137. [1] Whether Holland America may litigate its dispute with the BV entities in Washington state depends on which of several contracts govern their relationship. Holland America claims that the Bureau Veritas entities agreed to a forum selection clause providing for venue in Washington. The Bureau Veritas entities dispute this proposition, relying on two earlier contracts that provide for dispute resolution in the Court of Nanterre, France. HOLLAND AMERICA v. WÄRTSILÄ N. AMERICA 5071 Bureau Veritas and Windstar signed two contracts at the outset of their relationship. The first contract, in 1988, was made among Bureau Veritas, Windstar, and Barber Ship Management (Windstar’s agent). The contract contained a forum selection clause which provided that “[a]ny dispute shall be submitted to the court of Nanterre (France).” The second contract, signed in 1991, by Bureau Veritas, Windstar, and Holland America contained the same clause. In June 2000, Bureau Veritas issued new general conditions that it attached to future surveying contracts. Article 12.3 of these new conditions provides that disputes other than those related to invoices are subject exclusively to arbitration in London and that English law applies. Holland America alleges that its purchase orders for services and repairs include a forum selection clause that provides for all litigation to take place in federal court in Seattle or state courts in Washington. In support of its effort to bring the Bureau Veritas entities under the umbrella of this forum selection clause, Holland America offers a single affidavit stating that it placed telephone orders for surveys of the Wind Song by calling BV Canada and, more recently, BVNA, and that it emailed its terms and conditions to andre.laroche@ca. bureauveritas.com. Even taking these facts as true, Holland America does not meet its burden to establish jurisdiction under the Washington forum selection clause. See Dole Food Co. v. Watts, 303 F.3d 1104, 1108 (9th Cir. 2002) (holding that plaintiffs must make a prima facie case for jurisdiction to survive a motion to dismiss). This case does not present a question of fact, but rather a lack of facts that even raise a question about jurisdiction. Indeed, the facts alleged are more notable for their omissions than their substance. Holland America offers not a single purchase order or email with any Bureau Veritas entity, let alone a purchase order with accompanying terms. Holland’s bare assertions are just that—bare of any date, identity of contracting party, identity of transaction, or any other details that 5072 HOLLAND AMERICA v. WÄRTSILÄ N. AMERICA would tie the unspecified purchase order to the allegations in the complaint. For example, Holland America never states that it delivered its terms to Bureau Veritas, much less claims that Bureau Veritas agreed to such terms. Holland America does not state when it emailed its terms to Andre LaRoche, who emailed them, or whether LaRoche or anyone at Bureau Veritas, BVNA, or BV Canada ever accepted them. If the terms were delivered after 2002, they would have no bearing on this dispute. (No copy of the purported email has been produced.) Nor does the mere placement of phone orders demonstrate anything about a written purchase order, let alone support a claim that those orders constituted an agreement meant to supersede the 1988 and 1991 contracts. [2] Holland America’s forum selection argument boils down to a claim that it emailed terms to someone at BV Canada. Nothing offered by Holland America even links this statement to a report or service order that is implicated in this dispute. In short, the facts and allegations in Holland America’s complaint and its affidavits are too thin to meet its initial burden to support jurisdiction under the Washington forum selection clause. Holland America makes much of the fact that, since 2000, Bureau Veritas may have bound its customers to new terms dictating resolution of contractual disagreements through arbitration in London. That fact does not change the result for Holland America. Regardless of whether the 1988 and 1991 contracts or the 2000 general conditions govern the relationship between Holland America and Bureau Veritas, none of the contracts would permit litigation to be brought in the Western District of Washington. But, just as significantly, Holland America does not claim to be bound by the post-2000 general conditions or any subsequent conditions adopted by Bureau Veritas. [3] The forum selection clauses apply equally to BVNA and BV Canada because any transactions between those entiHOLLAND AMERICA v. WÄRTSILÄ N. AMERICA 5073 ties and Holland America took place as part of the larger contractual relationship between Holland America and Bureau Veritas. Our decision is informed by the closely analogous case of Manetti-Farrow, Inc. v. Gucci America, Inc., 858 F.2d 509 (9th Cir. 1988). Manetti-Farrow sought to avoid enforcement of a forum selection clause requiring litigation to be conducted in the Court of Florence. See id. at 511. The defendants included Gucci Parfums, a signatory to the contract, a variety of other Gucci-related companies, and several individuals who occupied prominent positions in the Gucci management hierarchy. Id. We held that the forum selection clause applied to all defendants, even though only Gucci Parfums signed the contract, because where the alleged conduct of the nonparties is closely related to the contractual relationship, “a range of transaction participants, parties and non-parties, should benefit from and be subject to forum selection clauses.” Id. at 514 n.5 (quoting Clinton v. Janger, 583 F. Supp. 284, 290 (N.D. Ill. 1984)). Just as the disputed conduct in Manetti-Farrow arose out of the contract with Gucci Parfums, the alleged conduct of BVNA and BV Canada is tied to Holland America’s contract with Bureau Veritas.2 [4] Having determined that Holland America has not met its burden with respect to imposing the Washington state forum selection clause, we turn to whether it would be reasonable to give effect to the foreign forum selection clauses. As the Supreme Court counseled in M/S Bremen v. Zapata OffShore Co., “in the light of present-day commercial realities and expanding international trade . . . the forum clause should control absent a strong showing that it should be set aside.” 407 U.S. 1, 15 (1972). A forum selection clause may be unreasonable “(1) if the inclusion of the clause in the agreement was the product of fraud or overreaching; (2) if the party 2 Contrary to the concurrence’s suggestion, the record reflects that one of the few things upon which the parties agree is that Holland America’s relationship with BV Canada and BVNA arose out of and was intimately related to its relationship with Bureau Veritas. 5074 HOLLAND AMERICA v. WÄRTSILÄ N. AMERICA wishing to repudiate the clause would effectively be deprived of his day in court were the clause enforced; and (3) if enforcement would contravene a strong public policy of the forum in which suit is brought.” Murphy, 362 F.3d at 1140. Holland America does not argue that it was the victim of either fraud or overreaching, nor does it argue that it effectively would be deprived of its day in court if either clause were enforced. Instead, Holland America, through its experts,3 claims that the Court of Nanterre, France, might decline to hear its suit because of Bureau Veritas’s 2000 general conditions. The affidavits simply reveal that a French court would consider which clause is applicable. Our job at this juncture is not to predict the outcome of any proceeding in either French or British courts. [5] Finally, for the first time on appeal, Holland America argues that the French forum provision contravenes public policy because it deprives Holland America of its right to a jury trial. Because this argument was not raised below, it is waived.4 Arizona v. Components Inc., 66 F.3d 213, 217 (9th Cir. 1995). The parties are sophisticated corporations that freely contracted with each other, and enforcement of the forum selection clause does not offend due process. Accord- 3 The expert affidavit of the British barrister is emblematic of the weakness of Holland America’s evidence in this jurisdictional battle. The lawyer claims no expertise in French law and his view, which does not address the issue at hand, is based on hearsay advice from unidentified French counsel. 4 It bears noting that adoption of Holland America’s Seventh Amendment argument would render contrary to public policy almost any forum selection clause providing for resolution in a foreign forum, as very few countries provide for jury trials in civil cases. See In re Linee Aeree Italiane (Alitalia), 469 F.3d 638, 640 (7th Cir. 2006) (noting that few foreign countries have civil juries); see also Michael I. Krauss, NAFTA Meets the American Torts Process: O’Keefe v. Loewen, 9 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 69, 81 (2000) (noting that the use of juries in civil trials abroad is “extremely rare”). HOLLAND AMERICA v. WÄRTSILÄ N. AMERICA 5075 ingly, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing Bureau Veritas, BVNA, and BV Canada on the basis of the forum selection clauses in Bureau Veritas’s contracts with Holland America.