Opinion ID: 172533
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Yavuz's First Appeal

Text: Yavuz appealed, arguing, among other things, the district court erred by (1) relying on the forum-selection clause in the Fiduciary Agreement to dismiss the case for improper venue, and (2) dismissing the case against the 61 MM Defendants, who were not parties to the Fiduciary Agreement and who had forfeited any objection to venue. We reversed and remanded, finding the forum-selection clause was ambiguous and warranted further factual development. In particular, we concluded it was clear that Swiss law governed the Fiduciary Agreement. But because the forum-selection clause stated Place of courts is Fribourg, it was unclear whether this provision was mandatory or permissive. Id. at 431. Additionally, we noted it was not readily apparent what claims and which parties were governed by the Agreement's choice of Swiss courts. Because the parties had not addressed the issue below, or on appeal, we remanded the case for the district court to construe the choice-of-forum provision under Swiss law in the first instance. More importantly, we also noted that this entire issue may be mooted by a determination that venue is inappropriate under the forum non conveniens doctrine. Id.