Opinion ID: 577047
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Availability of Impleader.

Text: 19 The district court considered SWD's inability to implead SUAG in the United States to be the most important factor warranting dismissal, and the court gratuitously opined that this factor alone would justify dismissal. ELMA argues that the trial court erred in making that consideration because SWD has no right of indemnity against SUAG for defects in its own engines. Alternatively, ELMA contends that the trial court erred because the doctrine of Leger v. Drilling Well Control, Inc., 592 F.2d 1246 (5th Cir.1979), protects SWD from having to pay more than its actual percentage of fault, which in turn renders SUAG's contribution unnecessary. 20 We cannot say that the district court acted unreasonably in finding that SWD's defense would be prejudiced if ELMA won judgment in the United States and SWD subsequently had to seek indemnity or contribution against SUAG in a foreign forum that is not bound to honor that judgment. The district court was entitled to consider SWD's inability to implead SUAG as a private interest factor. Piper, 454 U.S. at 259, 102 S.Ct. at 267; Nolan, 919 F.2d at 1069. We reject ELMA's assertion that SWD has no potential claims against SUAG. ELMA itself originally brought similar third-party claims against SUAG. And even under the Leger doctrine, assuming it applies, SWD could not effectively defend by faulting SUAG in the United States forum, according to the district court's findings. SWD cannot look to the district court to compel the discovery SWD needs to present evidence of SUAG's fault. We do not think that SWD has waived discovery as to that issue. And SWD still would risk exposure to the inconvenience and unfairness of inconsistent judgments in the event the district court assigned to SWD greater liability than did the Dutch court which may disregard the United States judgment. See Piper, 454 U.S. at 243, 260, 102 S.Ct. at 259, 268 (district court reasonably found that defendant's recourse to subsequent indemnity or contribution action in foreign forum creates risk of inconsistent judgments). 21