Court Opinion

ID: 9681161
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:44:40.353112+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:24.680002
License: Public Domain

ROBERTSON, Judge,
concurring.
With laudable deference to the role of the legislature not always present in our cases, see today’s decision in Shelton v. St. Anthony’s Medical Center, 781 S.W.2d 48 (Mo. banc 1989), the principal opinion is conveniently willing to “be guided by what the legislature says,” (op. at 585), at least on the issue of forum non conveniens. As I understand it, the principal opinion holds “that Missouri’s venue statute does not admit a doctrine of inconvenient forum in a case involving Missouri parties and a Missouri cause of action_” (op. at 586). To the extent that the Court eschews the words “inconvenient forum” or forum non conven-iens” as the reason for a court dismissing a case, I concur.
I do not, however, read today’s holding to preclude a constitutional challenge to the venue of a cause of action, even where that venue is proper under the statute. Due process requires both notice and an opportunity to be heard. The doctrine of forum non conveniens is not founded on constitutional principles; it attempts to provide a remedy for mere inconvenience. A focus on inconvenience does not, however, speak to the easily imagined circumstance in which a defendant’s opportunity to be heard is substantially impaired by an otherwise proper venue, chosen from among several available to a plaintiff who seeks to harass or gain other advantage unrelated to a quest for justice.
I am content to abide the legislature’s directives under the circumstances of this case. We must await a different case to determine the applicability of the due process clause to the concerns raised by the defendants in this case. On this basis, I concur in the majority’s opinion.