Aerospace Finance Leasing, Inc. v. New Hampshire Insurance

696 A.2d 810, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1297
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 30, 1997
DocketNo. 01888
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 696 A.2d 810 (Aerospace Finance Leasing, Inc. v. New Hampshire Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aerospace Finance Leasing, Inc. v. New Hampshire Insurance, 696 A.2d 810, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1297 (Pa. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

CIRILLO, President Judge Emeritus.

New Hampshire Insurance Company appeals from the certified amended order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County denying appellant’s preliminary objections on the basis of forum non conveniens. We affirm.

On July 18, 1992, Appellant New Hampshire Insurance Company (“New Hampshire”) 1 issued a one-year “Aviation Hull All Risks and Legal Liability” policy2 to its assured, Appellee Aerospace Financing Leasing, Inc. (“Aerospace”), a Delaware corporation.3 AIG Europe (UK) Limited, a broker with its business address in England, placed the policy for Aerospace and handled any claims made under the policy. The policy, which was valid worldwide, covered one of Aerospace’s aircrafts, a Lockheed Jetstar 731 (“Jetstar”). On November 27, 1992, the Jetstar was damaged while landing at the Southhampton Airport in Hampshire, England.

After the accident, New Hampshire authorized Avco Aviation (“Avco”) to repair the damaged aircraft.4 Months after it was hired, but before completion of the job, Avco liquidated. New Hampshire then employed Osprey Aviation Limited (“Osprey”) to complete the repairs on the damaged jet. In late 1994, purporting to have finished the necessary repairs to make the jet “airworthy,” Osprey released the aircraft for a test flight. After the flight, the pilots concluded that the craft was not airworthy and additional repairs were undertaken by Osprey. Following two more failed test flights, New Hampshire advised Aerospace that the repairs were completed and that the jet was “airworthy.” In response, Aerospace retained an aeronautical engineer to evaluate the aircraft. The engineer concluded that the Jetstar was in need of further repairs in order to return it to its pre-accident condition and that Avco and Osprey’s repair work was unacceptable.

On December 14, 1995, Aerospace filed a complaint in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County alleging breach of contract, negligence and violation of Pennsylvania’s Bad Faith Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8871,5 against New Hampshire. The complaint, seeking over $3,250,000.00, plus interest and [812]*812punitive damages,6 alleged that New Hampshire had failed to return the Jetstar to its pre-accident condition, had failed to properly maintain, preserve and protect the aircraft during the almost two years of repairs, and had refused to pay Aerospace the agreed value of the Jetstar.7 All of these instances, Aerospace contends, amounted to a breach of the insurance contract between the parties. At the time the complaint was filed in Allegheny County, New Hampshire was incorporated in Pennsylvania.8 New Hampshire filed preliminary objections, based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens, asserting that England is a more appropriate forum for the resolution of the parties’ underlying claims. The preliminary objections were denied. Subsequently, the trial court entered an order amending its original order and certifying the issue for our review pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 311(b)(2).9 New Hampshire now appeals from this amended and certified order, raising the following issues for our consideration:

(1)In an action on an insurance policy, is dismissal based on forum non conveniens appropriate where the policy was solicited, brokered, and issued in England to two insureds which listed their address in England, and where the incident giving rise to coverage occurred in England and where the insurance claim was presented and adjusted in England and where repairs were undertaken in England?
(2) In an action on an insurance policy, is dismissal based on forum non conveniens appropriate where the only nexus between the defendant insurance company and Pennsylvania is the fact that the insurer changed its place of incorporation from a foreign state to Pennsylvania after the expiration of the policy at issue, and after the incident giving rise to coverage?
(3) In an action on an insurance policy, is the proximity of counsel and designated expert witnesses insufficient to make a chosen forum county appropriate, especially because no fact witnesses are located in the forum county?10

A trial judge has great discretion in reviewing petitions to change venue based upon forum non conveniens; on appeal the superior court must determine whether the trial judge abused that discretion. Shears v. Rigley, 424 Pa.Super. 559, 623 A.2d 821 (1993). In order to demonstrate that the trial court has abused its discretion, “an appellant must show that ‘in reaching a conclusion the law is overridden or misapplied, or the judgment exercised is manifestly unreasonable, or the result of partiality, prejudice, bias, or ill will.’ ” McCrory v. Abraham, 441 [813]*813Pa.Super. 258, 261, 657 A.2d 499, 501 (1995) (quotation omitted).11

As noted in this court’s decision in Page v. Ekbladh, 404 Pa.Super. 368, 590 A.2d 1278 (1991), the proper analysis of a forum non conveniens issue “involves an evaluation of the appropriateness of the two [forums],” Pennsylvania (United States) and England (The United Kingdom). Id. at 373, 590 A.2d at 1280. The case before us today, however, presents an issue of first impression for this court: namely, what analysis should guide us in the resolution of the issue of forum non conveniens in the context of an international setting? Rule 1006(d) explicitly applies to intrastate transfer — i.e. county to county. Furthermore, we have found that 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 5322 applies in the analysis of an interstate forum dispute. See Shears, supra. In Shears, however, our court astutely observed that because both Rule 1006 and 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5322 are derived from the common law doctrine of forum non conveniens, both interstate and intrastate eases apply the doctrine similarly. Due to the fact that the doctrine of forum non conveniens is based upon a common law notion, we will remain consistent in employing the standard used by our state courts with regard to inter/intrastate dismissal for forum challenges in the context of this international setting.

The doctrine of forum non conveniens was employed as “a necessary counterbalance to insure fairness and practicality.” Okkerse v. Howe, 521 Pa. 509, 518, 556 A.2d 827, 832 (1989). It is used where the defendant:

[C]learly adduces facts that either (1) establish such oppressiveness and vexation to a defendant as to be out of all proportion to plaintiffs convenience or (2) make a trial in the chosen forum inappropriate because of considerations affecting the court’s own administrative and legal problems.

Forman v. Rossman, 449 Pa.Super. 34, 39, 672 A.2d 1341, 1343 (1996) (emphasis in original) (en banc), appeal granted, 545 Pa. 653, 680 A.2d 1162 (1996).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Duxbury, E. v. Reconstructive Orthopedic Assoc.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2026
Weiner, M. v. Artis Senior Living
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2024
Nwachan, T. v. Homegoods, Inc.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Susi, A. v. Peter Pan Bus Lines
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2022
Estate of Richard L. Michael
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2022
Parrent, M. v. Penske Logistics LLC
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021
McConnell, B. v. B. Braun Medical Inc.
2019 Pa. Super. 310 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019)
Wright, S. v. CSX Transportation, Inc.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019
Rhyne, B. v. U.S. Steel Corp. Sunoco, Inc.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019
Hovatter, D. v. CSX Transportation
193 A.3d 420 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2018)
Bochetto, G. v. Dimeling, Schreiber & Park
151 A.3d 1072 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2016)
SWZ Financial v. Wonders, S.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015
Black, P. v. CSX Transportation, Inc.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014
Bochetto v. Piper Aircraft Co.
94 A.3d 1044 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)
Bochetto v. Dineling, Schreiber & Park
27 Pa. D. & C.5th 498 (Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, 2013)
Kephart Trucking Co. v. Jackson Fiorentino LLC
13 Pa. D. & C.5th 92 (Monroe County Court of Common Pleas, 2010)
Morin v. Brassington
871 A.2d 844 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2005)
Humes v. Eckerd Corp.
807 A.2d 290 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Fleming Steel Co. v. Boro Developers Inc.
52 Pa. D. & C.4th 80 (Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
696 A.2d 810, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aerospace-finance-leasing-inc-v-new-hampshire-insurance-pasuperct-1997.