Court Opinion

ID: 9731438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:45:50.020739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:18.136732
License: Public Domain

CROSBY, J.
—I concur. California’s public policy against health care fraud is only peripherally involved, if at all, in this lawsuit. Plaintiffs do not seek to vindicate the rights of swindled patients, but only to recover money damages for themselves based on ordinary fraud and breach of contract theories. Common law fraud can certainly be described as a violation of California public policy: Redress for that tort, along with punitive damages in appropriate cases, is readily available in our courts. But if garden variety fraud were sufficient of itself to defeat a forum selection clause, the rule of Smith, Valentino & Smith, Inc. v. Superior Court (1976) 17 Cal.3d 491 [131 Cal.Rptr. 374, 551 P.2d 1206] would be quickly swallowed by that exception. No suit on a contract today appears complete without its de rigueur fraud count.
The situation was significantly different in Hall v. Superior Court (1983) 150 Cal.App.3d 411 [197 Cal.Rptr. 757], where California’s interest was exemplified by an amicus brief filed by the Commissioner of Corporations in this court. There also, in addition to fraud and breach of contract, plaintiffs alleged specific statutory violations of the California Corporate Securities Act of which they were direct victims.
Moreover, in Hall, California had a far greater interest in the outcome than Nevada, whose only contact with the transaction was the execution of an agreement in the Las Vegas airport. The relative interests of California and Michigan are not similarly skewed here, however, at least in this lawsuit, which I again emphasize does not involve defrauded California consumers, of laboratory services. Furda’s activities, assuming the allegations of the complaint are true, should be curtailed; but they are occurring, in the main, beyond this state’s legal ability to interfere. Here, enforcement of the forum selection clause is legally appropriate—and also better policy.