Court Opinion

ID: 9884626
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:03:58.844221+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:39.845657
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Ward, concurring in the result: The majority say that it would be contrary to the public policy of this State to entertain an action under the Wisconsin statute concerned and that such denial of access to our courts does not violate the full-faith-and-credit provision of the constitution of the United States. While I agree that this cause should not be entertained in Illinois, I am not fully persuaded that the rationale of the majority is beyond proper challenge. Consider: Oltarsh v. Aetna Insurance Co., 15 N.Y.2d 111, 204 N.E.2d 622; Collins v. American Auto Insurance Co. (2d cir.), 230 F.2d 416; Hughes v. Fetter, 341 U.S. 609, 95 L. Ed. 1212, 71 S. Ct. 980; First National Bank of Chicago v. United Air Lines, 342 U.S. 396, 96 L. Ed. 441, 72 S. Ct. 421; Millsap v. Central Wisconsin Motor Transport Co., 41 Ill. App. 2d 1; Swanson v. Badger, 275 F. Supp. 544. I judge that the complaint and cause should have been dismissed on the basis of forum non conveniens. Under this doctrine a court may, exercising sound discretion, decline to assume jurisdiction of an action brought before it if it deems that the cause may more conveniently and at no sacrifice of full justice be litigated in another court to which it may be brought after the declining court’s refusal to entertain jurisdiction. Circumstances which will cause a court to dismiss a case under forum non conveniens cannot be neatly packaged. The Supreme Court in Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 508, 91 L. Ed. 1055, 67 S. Ct. 839, stated: “Wisely, it has not been attempted to catalogue the circumstances which will justify or require either grant or denial of remedy. * * * If the combination and weight of factors requisite to given results are difficult to forecast or state, those to be considered are not difficult to name. An interest to be considered, and the one likely to be most pressed, is the private interest of the litigant. Important considerations are the relative ease of access to sources of proof; availability of compulsory process for attendance of unwilling, and the cost of obtaining attendance of willing, witnesses; possibility of view of premises, if view would be appropriate to the action; and all other practical problems that make trial of a case easy, expeditious and inexpensive. * * * The court will weigh relative advantages and obstacles to fair trial. It is often said that the plaintiff may not, by choice of an inconvenient forum, ‘vex,’ ‘harass,’ or ‘oppress’ the defendant by inflicting upon him expense or trouble not necessary to his own right to pursue his remedy. But unless the balance is strongly in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff’s choice of forum should rarely be disturbed. “Factors of public interest also have place in applying the doctrine. Administrative difficulties follow for courts when litigation is piled up in congested centers instead of being handled at its origin. Jury duty is a burden that ought not to be imposed upon the people of a community which has no relation to the litigation. In cases which touch the affairs of many persons, there is reason for holding the trial in their view and reach rather than in remote parts of the country where they can learn of it by report only. There is a local interest in having localized controversies decided at home. There is an appropriateness, too, in having the trial of a diversity case in a forum that is at home with the state law that must govern the case, rather than having a court in some other forum untangle problems in conflict of laws, and in law foreign to itself.” I have no hesitancy in declaring my belief that the defendants here might properly invoke the doctrine. The sole contact, so to speak, of this cause with Illinois is the fact that Coronet and State Farm are Illinois corporations. The plaintiff is a resident of Wisconsin, as is Trombley. The collision which is the basis of the complaint, was in Wisconsin. Tapio is described as a resident of Bessemer, Michigan, which is in the upper Western Peninsula of that State and which is close to Wisconsin. The medical treatment which the plaintiff received was given in Wisconsin. It is clear that none of the persons who normally would be called as witnesses are from this State and their greater inconvenience would be occasioned by their being called to Illinois. I think it proper to consider, too, that the circuit court of Cook County is congested with litigation having a closer connection to it than the cause here concerned. (Universal Adjustment Corp. v. Midland Bank Ltd., 281 Mass. 303, 184 N.E. 152; Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 91 L. Ed. 1055.) According to the records of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts there are pending, as of September 30, 1967, 56,287 cases in the law division of the circuit court of the county of Cook and that the average time lapse between the date of the filing of cases and the date of verdict handed down in September, 1967, was 60.6 months. The Administrative Office reports that over 90% of the law cases filed represent personal injury claims and that approximately 95% of verdicts reached in Cook County involve claims for personal injury. It is clear that the judicial system of Cook County is already overburdened and that distant causes, under these circumstances, may not appropriately be entertained there. It is appropriate, also, to notice that the Statute of Limitations in the State of Wisconsin for personal injury is three years and that there is ample time to allow the plaintiff to institute an action, if she desires, in a court of that State. See Van Dam v. Smit, 101 N.H. 508, 148 A.2d 289. The defendants in moving to dismiss the complaints against them did state inter alia that Cook County would not be a convenient forum, as one assured resided in Wisconsin and the other in Michigan and the occurrence on which the complaint was based was in Wisconsin and more than 400 miles from Cook County. The trial court found in part that bringing the suit in Illinois under the Wisconsin statute would be contrary to our public policy. The court’s order also recited “that this court makes no findings and does not pass in any way upon the defendants’ attempt to urge the doctrine of non-conveniens.” It is certainly proper for this court to consider a ground relied upon by the defendants and to consider its applicability, for the doctrine may appropriately be recognized even if it has not been adequately pleaded. (Cf. Burdick v. Freeman, 120 N.Y. 420, 24 N.E. 949.) I concur that the complaint and cause should have been dismissed by the circuit court but I would base it on the ground of forum non conveniens. Mr. Justice Schaefer joins in this concurring opinion.