Court Opinion

ID: 9548519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:04:52.084368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:05.076066
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
Any analysis of this problem should begin with recognition of three basic precepts. First, while the private interests of litigants may be considered, the public interest is paramount. (Goodwine v. Superior Court (1965) 63 Cal.2d 481, 485 [47 Cal.Rptr. 201, 407 P.2d 1].) Second, unless a balance is strongly in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff’s choice of forum should rarely be disturbed. (Price v. Atchison, T. & S. F Ry. Co. (1954) 42 Cal.2d 577, 585 [268 P.2d 457, 43 A.L.R.2d 756].) Third, *498California has an overriding public policy favoring access to its courts by resident litigants. (Thomson v. Continental Ins. Co. (1967) 66 Cal.2d 738, 742 [59 Cal.Rptr. 101, 427 P.2d 765].)
Petitioner asserts the forum selection clause of the contract involved herein is void and unenforceable. Its contention is supported by ample authority. (General Acceptance Corp. v. Robinson (1929) 207 Cal. 285, 289 [277 P. 1039]; Beirut Universal Bank v. Superior Court (1969) 268 Cal.App.2d 832, 843 [74 Cal.Rptr. 333]; General Motors Accept. Corp. v. Codiga (1923) 62 Cal.App. 117, 119 [216 P. 383].) It is significant that the majority cite no California cases upholding this type of forum shopping by prearrangement. And without citation of authority from any source they attempt to carve a finely honed dichotomy between a court deprived of jurisdiction by agreement and a court declining to exercise jurisdiction because of an agreement. To a plaintiff denied an opportunity to be heard in the courts of his home state such a gossamer thin distinction is of dubious comfort.
The rule was well stated by the court in Beirut Universal Bank, supra, at page 843, citing Corbin: “ ‘It is a generally accepted rule in the United States that an express provision in a contract that no suit shall be maintained thereon, except in a particular court or in the courts of a particular county, state or nation, is not effective to deprive any court of jurisdiction that it otherwise could have over litigation based on that contract.’ (6A Corbin on Contracts (1962) § 1445, p. 477.)”
Certainly it cannot be disputed that absent the clause in the agreement the courts of California would otherwise have jurisdiction over this litigation. Thus the agreement is not effective to deprive the courts of their jurisdiction.
The majority rely on The Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co. (1972) 407 U.S. 1 [32 L.Ed.2d 513, 92 S.Ct. 1907]. But they overlook Chief Justice Burger’s observation in that case that “Forum-selection clauses have historically not been favored by American courts. Many courts, federal and state, have declined to enforce such clauses on the ground that they were ‘contrary to public policy,’ or that their effect was to ‘oust the jurisdiction’ of the court.” (Id., at p. 9 [32 L.Ed.2d at p. 520]; fn. omitted.) Nevertheless, the court concluded that such clauses are enforceable “by federal district courts sitting in admiralty.” (Id., at p. 10 [32 L.Ed.2d at pp. 520-521]; italics added.) The court did not direct that admiralty law is to be adapted to state courts in determining their jurisdiction.
*499Without regard to the forum selection clause and the issue of its validity, there is an additional persuasive reason not to deny petitioner its day in a California court.
The motion of the real party in interest was made under section 410.30 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the statute that gives recognition to the doctrine of forum non conveniens. As the Judicial Council comment to the section indicates, the doctrine of inconvenient forum is “typically applied to litigation where all of the parties are out-of-state residents and where the cause of action arose outside the forum state.” (14 West’s Annot. Code Civ. Proc. (1973 ed.) p. 493.) In this instance we have a California resident bringing a lawsuit against a company doing business in California on a contract calling for personal services to be rendered in California. Pennsylvania is only tangentially involved as the home office of the defendant corporation. By no rationale can it be contended that Pennsylvania is a more convenient forum, under the standards enumerated in the comment to section 410.30. (Id., at pp. 491-492.)
Finally, the respondent corporation’s plea that fairness dictates the litigation be tried in Pennsylvania deserves little sympathy because of its conduct in having previously deliberately breached the very forum selection clause it now seeks to enforce.
Prior to institution of this lawsuit in California by petitioner, the real party in interest filed an action in Pennsylvania for breach of contract, contrary to the forum selection clause which obligated it to bring such proceedings here. Its reason, candidly admitted in its briefs, was to avoid precipitating massive litigation involving all claims of the parties under the agreement. For tactical purposes it chose a piecemeal approach to resolving an apparently formidable controversy. The result of this shrewd maneuver is that the Pennsylvania company’s suit has already been tried in Pennsylvania, contrary to the agreement, while the California agency’s suit will also be heard in Pennsylvania, purportedly pursuant to the agreement. In weighing which forum is the more appropriate our courts should not exercise their discretion to reward this type of gamesmanship.
I would issue the writ.