Court Opinion

ID: 9645921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:40:25.124071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:33.017524
License: Public Domain

DUGGAN, Justice,
dissenting.
It is difficult for me to believe that the Texas legislature intended by § 71.031 to permit all foreigners who imagine themselves aggrieved by American entities or individuals operating in foreign countries, but also doing business in Texas, to maintain their tort suits in Texas — without the slightest regard for nexus or convenience.
To hold that no plea of forum non conve-niens will be allowed, regardless of inconvenience and potential unfairness, will no doubt subject the statute to well-deserved due process attacks.
The majority correctly states that the Texas Supreme Court has not spoken decisively on the issue in the succession of cases enumerated in the majority opinion. I believe the reason for this is that our highest court recognizes the potential for unfairness that could follow a sweeping abolition of the doctrine of forum non con-veniens, and wisely intends that the doctrine remain in place as a tool for trial courts’ use in the sound exercise of judicial discretion.
Two of the most instructive intermediate court opinions to explicitly recognize the doctrine of forum non conveniens were written by intermediate level appellate judges who later became distinguished justices on the Supreme Court of Texas. Flaiz v. Moore, 353 S.W.2d 74 (Tex.Civ. App. — San Antonio 1962), rev’d on other grounds, 359 S.W.2d 872 (Tex.1962) (Judge Pope); and Forcum Dean Co. v. Missouri Pacific R.R. Co., 341 S.W.2d 464 (Tex.Civ. *212App.—San Antonio 1960, no writ) (Judge Barrow.) It is interesting to note that no intermediate court opinion has ever repudiated the doctrine.
Unless litigants are afforded some relief in cases where a trial in Texas would be grossly unfair, it is not far-fetched to imagine that the following ditty might become the number one hit song in Yugoslavia by 1990:
I cain't prove no Texas Nexus.
I got hurt near home in Zren-Ja-Neen.
Still I filed my suit in Texas.
They ain’t got no forum non conveen [sic].
(With apologies to George Strait and the author of “All My Exes Live in Texas,” and with credit to lyricist/briefing attorney Kate Hall of this Court.)
I respectfully dissent.