Coppola v. Ferrellgas, Inc.

250 F.R.D. 195, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17246, 2008 WL 612676
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 6, 2008
DocketCivil Action No. 07-4023
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 250 F.R.D. 195 (Coppola v. Ferrellgas, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coppola v. Ferrellgas, Inc., 250 F.R.D. 195, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17246, 2008 WL 612676 (E.D. Pa. 2008).

Opinion

[196]*196 MEMORANDUM

BUCKWALTER, Senior District Judge.

Currently pending before the Court is the Motion of Defendant Engineered Controls International, Inc. [“ECII”]1 to Transfer Venue Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), the Response of Plaintiffs Brian Coppola, Kimberly Coppola, William S. Stephens, Martin Makowski and Stephanie Makowski, and Defendant ECU’s Reply. For the following reasons, the Court grants the Motion and transfers the matter to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Division.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

According to the facts set forth in the Complaint and by the parties in their briefs, this action arose from an accident at the Princeton University campus in Princeton, New Jersey. (Compl. U10.) Plaintiffs allege that, on the aforementioned date, Brian Coppola, William S. Stephens and Martin Ma-kowski were using a gas cylinder while working at a partially completed construction site on the Princeton campus. (Id.) The gas cylinder began leaking propane, causing it to explode. (Id.) Personnel from the Princeton Borough Police Department, Princeton Fire Department, Princeton University Department of Public Safety and Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad responded to the reports of the fire. (Defs’. Mem. Supp. Mot. Transfer Venue Ex. B.) The three Plaintiffs at the scene were injured in the explosion and transferred to medical facilities in New Jersey. (Id.) In addition, three other workers were injured: Tyree Jenkins of Nashville, Tennessee, Christopher Meletti of Lam-bertville, New Jersey and Tom Lebrosciano of Glenolden, Pennsylvania. (Id.) The fire was investigated by the Princeton Borough Police Department, the Princeton Department of Public Safety, the Princeton Township Fire Marshall and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. (Id.)

On July 20, 2007, the injured Plaintiffs, together with spouses Kimberly Coppola and Stephanie Makowski — all of whom are residents of Pennsylvania — brought a products liability action against Defendants in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. They alleged that Defendant ECII, an Elon College, North Carolina corporation, manufactured a defective part on the gas cylinder. (Compl. U 8.) Further, they claimed that Defendant Ferrellgas Inc., a corporation headquartered in Kansas and with an office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leased the defective gas cylinder to Plaintiffs’ employer, Dan LePore and Sons, which is based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. (Id. U 9.) Plaintiffs asserted that Defendants knew or should have known that the gas cylinder was sold, distributed or delivered to the Plaintiffs in an unreasonably dangerous and defective condition. (Id. U11.) In addition, they contended that Defendants were negligent in failing to inspect and maintain the gas cylinder and failing to warn Plaintiffs about its dangers. (Id. U1112-13.)

The case was removed to federal court on September 25, 2007, after which Defendants submitted an Answer and Affirmative Defenses. On January 31, 2007, Defendant ECII filed a motion to transfer venue to the District of New Jersey, Trenton Division. It is to this Motion that the Court now turns.

II. DISCUSSION

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), a district court may transfer an action to any other district “where it might have been brought” if this transfer is “for the convenience of parties and witnesses” and “in the interest of justice.” 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a); see also Connors v. UUU Prods., No 03-CV-6420, 2004 WL 834726, at *6 (E.D.Pa. Mar. 15, 2004). The determination of whether to transfer venue pursuant to section 1404(a) is governed by federal law. See Jumara v. State Farm Ins. Co., 55 F.3d 873, 877-878 (3d Cir.1995) (federal law applies because questions of venue are procedural, rather than substantive).

Analysis of a request for a section 1404(a) transfer has two components. First, both the original venue and the requested venue must be proper. Jumara, 55 F.3d at 878. Venue, in a diversity case, is proper “(1) where the defendant resides, (2) where a [197]*197substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred, or (3) where personal jurisdiction may be had over any defendant if no other venue is proper.” Park Inn Intern., L.L.C. v. Mody Enters., Inc., 105 F.Supp.2d 370, 375 (D.N.J.2000) (summarizing 28 U.S.C. § 1391(a)).

Second, “[bjecause the purpose of allowing § 1404(a) transfers is to prevent the waste of ‘time, energy and money’ and to ‘protect litigants, witnesses and the public against unnecessary inconvenience and expense,’ ” Market Transition Facility of New Jersey v. Twena, 941 F.Supp. 462, 467 (D.N.J.1996) (quoting Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 616, 84 S.Ct. 805, 809, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964)), the Court is required to undertake a balancing test in deciding whether the “interests of justice [would] be better served by a transfer to a different forum.” Jumara, 55 F.3d at 879; see also Salovaara v. Jackson Nat. Life Ins. Co., 246 F.3d 289, 298 (3d Cir.2001). The Third Circuit has outlined the pertinent public and private interest factors, as follows:

The private interests include: (1) the plaintiffs forum preference as manifested in the original choice; (2) the defendant’s preference; (3) whether the claim arose elsewhere; (4) the convenience of the parties as indicated by their relative physical and financial condition; (5) the convenience of the witnesses; and (6) the location of books and records.
The public interests include: (1) the enforceability of the judgment; (2) practical considerations that could make the trial easy, expeditious, or inexpensive; (3) the relative administrative difficulty in the two fora resulting from court congestion; (4) the local interest in deciding controversies at home; (5) the public policies of the fora; and (6) the familiarity of the trial judge ■with the applicable state law in diversity cases.

Omega Fin. Servs., Inc. v. Innovia Estates & Mortg. Corp., No. 07-CV-1470, 2007 WL 4322794, at *1 (D.N.J. Dec. 6, 2007) (citing Jumara, 55 F.3d at 879-80). The burden falls on the moving defendant to show the desirability of transferring venue and to present evidence2 upon which the court may rely in justifying transfer. Fellner ex rel. Estate of Fellner v. Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc., No. 05-CV-1052, 2005 WL 2660351, at *4 (E.D.Pa. Oct. 18, 2005). Notably, analyses of transfers under section 1404(a) are “flexible and must be made on the unique facts of each ease.” Job Haines Home for the Aged v. Young, 936 F.Supp. 223, 227 (D.N.J.1996) (internal quotations omitted).

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250 F.R.D. 195, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17246, 2008 WL 612676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coppola-v-ferrellgas-inc-paed-2008.