Court Opinion

ID: 9714465
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:38:12.907661+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:26.276332
License: Public Domain

DEL SOLE, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result. I agree that venue was proper in Allegheny County because Appellant Jill Horn resides in Allegheny County. However, under the appropriate circumstances, I believe that a trial court may transfer venue sua sponte in order to adjudicate cases in the most expeditious manner possible and at the least expense and inconvenience to all concerned.
The question of venue is not simple to resolve. The Superior Court has recently dealt with this subject in Korn v. Marvin Fives Food Equipment, 362 Pa.Super. 559, 524 A.2d 1380 (1987), and in Petty v. Suburban General Hospital, 363 Pa.Super. 277, 525 A.2d 1230 (1987). In both Korn and Petty, identical language is used in discussing considerations for change of venue on forum non conveniens grounds.
When exercising its discretion on a motion to transfer for the convenience of the parties and witnesses, the court should consider those elements which affect the private interests of the litigants which include: the relative ease of access to sources of proof, availability of compulsory *191process for attendance of unwilling, and the cost of obtaining attendance of willing, witnesses; possibility of view of premises, if a view would be appropriate to the action; and all other practical problems that make trial of a case easy, expeditious and inexpensive. There may also be a question as to the enforceability of a judgment if one is obtained. The court must also consider those elements in which the public has an interest and those include: problems of creating court congestion and imposing jury duty upon people of a community which has no relation to the litigation; the appropriateness of having the action tried in a forum where the court is familiar with the law that must govern the case, rather than having a court in some other forum step into a quick-sand of conflict of laws problems and foreign law. (Emphasis added).
Korn, 524 A.2d at 1382; Petty, 525 A.2d at 1232.
I am aware that in neither of these cases did the trial court act sua sponte to transfer the case to another forum. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that such an action is within the discretion of the trial court when it concludes that the considerations for determining proper venue have been abused.
A hypothetical example of this is when a case is filed in Allegheny County, although the plaintiffs are residents of Washington County, the cause of action arose out of incidents which occurred in Washington County, and two of the three named defendants are residents of Washington County. The third defendant concededly does business in Allegheny County. (Although it may very well do business in any number of the sixty-seven counties of Pennsylvania as well). Under such circumstances, the provisions of Pa.R. C.P. 1006(c) would permit the bringing of the cause of action in Allegheny County.
In a situation of this nature, the court must contend with questions about the convenience of the parties and even greater problems created by the elements in which the public has an interest.
*192Article 5, Section 1 of the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitution requires that the judicial system shall be unified, consisting of the Supreme Court, the Superior Court, the Commonwealth Court, courts of common pleas, community courts, municipal and traffic courts in the City of Philadelphia, such other courts as may be provided by law and justices of the peace.
Notwithstanding this requirement, a unified system of funding has not been achieved. The Commonwealth pays the salaries of the judges and makes a minimal contribution to the expenses of operating the courts of common pleas. The individual counties fund the overwhelming bulk of the cost of maintaining the courts within its judicial district.
Why should the taxpayers of Allegheny County be burdened with the expenses of determining a law suit (such as the one in the above hypothetical), with which they have no connection. If a trial court did not transfer such a case it would be ignoring the elements in which the public had an interest. There is no nexus between Allegheny County and such litigation. The only reason that venue is even proper is because one of the defendants does business in this county. Cases of this nature add considerably to both the congestion of large metropolitan jurisdictions and the costs of financing them. Upon evaluation of the situation, a trial judge would be serving the public expediently by changing the venue of a cáse to a place having a relationship to, and a basis for, adjudicating the matter.
I am mindful of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Allegheny County v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 517 Pa. 65, 534 A.2d 760 (1987), in which the Court held that the present statutory funding for the judicial system offended the constitutional mandate for a unified system. The General Assembly must now enact appropriate funding legislation consistent with the Court’s opinion. Hopefully, the current funding problem as it applies to questions regarding venue will be eliminated.
Until such legislation is implemented, I propose that pending suits with illogical questions of venue are transfer*193able sua sponte by the trial court in keeping with public policy.