Court Opinion

ID: 9741931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:04:21.874763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:27.259468
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur. I write separately only to highlight the call for change of the venue statutes. NDCC Ch. 28-04 is a legal thicket of deadwood and obscure underbrush. It should be revised, or repealed and replaced by modern procedural rules about the place of trial.
A nearsighted view of NDCC 28-04-04 expressed in City of Granville v. Kovash, Incorporated, 96 N.W.2d 168 (N.D.1959) illustrates a statutory limitation about the place of trial, one that necessitates this *497decision. The opinion of the Chief Justice says NDCC 28-04-04 is inapposite to this case, but it should be applicable. A company which has physically performed work in a county should ordinarily be suable there about its work. Generally, it will be the most convenient place to judicially examine the contract performance.
Also, the first trial court to address a case, not the second, should determine the most convenient forum. Chief Justice Er-ickstad advocated that, as a better use of judicial resources, in his dissent in American State Bank of Dickinson v. Hoffelt, 236 N.W.2d 895 at 900 (N.D.1975). I believe that view is sound and should be adopted, either by reconsideration or rule-making, if legislation does not repeal or reform our outmoded venue statutes.