Plywood Panels, Inc. v. M/V Thalia

141 F.R.D. 689, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5347, 1992 WL 80810
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedApril 13, 1992
DocketNo. 91-2116
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 141 F.R.D. 689 (Plywood Panels, Inc. v. M/V Thalia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Plywood Panels, Inc. v. M/V Thalia, 141 F.R.D. 689, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5347, 1992 WL 80810 (E.D. La. 1992).

Opinion

ORDER AND REASONS

ARCENEAUX, District Judge.

This court previously ordered the parties to show cause why Civil Action No. 91-4481 should not be remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In addition, defendant Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., Ltd. (“Hyundai”) filed a motion on March 23, 1992, for leave to file a third-party complaint and a motion on March 31, 1992, for leave to file an amended and supplemental third-party complaint. Having reviewed the memoranda submitted by the parties and having discussed this matter with counsel, the court now rules in accordance with the applicable law.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Plywood Panels, Inc. (“PPI”) filed Civil Action No. 91-2116 in this court on June 6, 1991. In its complaint, PPI requests relief for damages allegedly caused by Hyundai and its vessels to plywood cargoes shipped to the United States. The damage to the cargoes allegedly occurred during some forty-four voyages from Indonesian ports.

PPI also filed similar actions against Hyundai in federal district courts located in [690]*690Virginia and California. According to counsel, the Virginia case has been tried already but no decision has been rendered. The California action, however, has been transferred to this court and placed on the docket as Civil Action No. 91-4481.

PPI commenced the California action on June 6, 1991—the same date of filing as its action in this court. Civil Action No. 91-4481 involves approximately fifty voyages between Indonesian ports and Los Angeles. Defendant Hyundai initially moved the California federal court on October 9, 1991, to transfer this action to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The district judge granted Hyundai’s motion in an order dated November 12, 1991, but provided no written reasons for his ruling.

The issue of proper venue came to the court's attention upon the filing of defendant’s motion for leave to file its third-party complaints. The court, upon review of these motions, found that many of the third-party defendants had questionable contacts with Louisiana. Furthermore, a review of the record in Civil Action No. 91-4481 put into question the proper venue for that action.

The court, therefore, ordered briefing from the parties to address these issues. In addition, the court held a status conference with counsel to further discuss these matters. The court now addresses the issue of venue and the defendant’s motions on the merits.

DISCUSSION

1. Improper Venue

This court clearly may raise proper venue sua sponte but also recognizes the limited circumstances under which it may review the transfer order of another district court. This court’s retention of Civil Action No. 91-4481, however, would result in a manifest injustice and, consequently, it must be remanded.

The jurisprudence permits a court to raise the issue of venue and to transfer a cause of action on its own motion. See Mills v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 886 F.2d 758, 761 (5th Cir.1989); Jarvis Christian College v. Exxon Corp., 845 F.2d 523, 528-29 (5th Cir.1988). In general, a transferee court, however, should not review the transferor court’s order

“except under the most impelling and unusual circumstances” or if the transfer order is “manifestly erroneous.” Failure to abide the original transfer order contains the additional potential mischief of tossing cases back and forth to the detriment of an adjudication of the underlying merits of the case and respect due sister courts.
It does not follow, however, that a transferee court is powerless to act where the original purposes of the transfer have been frustrated by an unforeseen later event____ When such unanticipatable post-transfer events frustrate the original purpose for transfer, a return of the case to the original transferor court does not foul the rule of the case nor place the transferee court in a position of reviewing the decision of its sister court. It, instead, represents a considered decision that the case then is better tried in the original forum for reasons which became known after the original transfer order.

In re Cragar Indus., Inc., 706 F.2d 503, 505 (5th Cir.1983) (citations omitted); see United States v. Koenig, 290 F.2d 166, 173-74 n. 11 (5th Cir.1961), aff'd, 369 U.S. 121, 82 S.Ct. 654, 7 L.Ed.2d 614 (1962). In this case, the court questions the transfer- or court’s reasons for sending this action here and finds that Hyundai’s motions to file third-party complaints have raised events unanticipated at the time of transfer.

The federal change of venue statute provides that, “For the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interest of justice, a district court may transfer any civil action to any other district or division where it might have been brought.” 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). The U.S. Supreme Court in Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964), discussed the construction of this statute and stated:

[691]*691Section 1404(a) reflects an increased desire to have federal civil suits tried in the federal system at the place called for in the particular case by considerations of convenience and justice. Thus, ... the purpose of the section is to prevent the waste “of time, energy and money” and “to protect litigants, witnesses, and the public against unnecessary inconvenience and expense____” To this end it empowers a district court to transfer “any civil action” to another district court if the transfer is warranted by the convenience of parties and witnesses and promotes the interest of justice.

Id. at 616, 84 S.Ct. at 809 (citations and footnotes omitted). Under this standard, the court finds that the transferor court committed a manifest error in granting the defendant’s transfer motion.

The court first notes that Civil Action No. 91-4481 involves some fifty voyages where vessels discharged cargoes in Los Angeles. Thus, the stevedores and other witnesses who attended these discharges all will be found in Los Angeles and outside the subpoena power of this court. Furthermore, both the plaintiff and the defendant maintain offices and presumably the documentation relating to these voyages in the Central District of California. Finally, this court recognizes the efforts that plaintiff took to bring its causes of action in the venues most proper for their adjudication. Such choice and the investigatory work preceding it should not be lightly disturbed.

The defendant’s third-party complaints also compel this court to remand this action as an unanticipated event relative to proper venue. The complaints primarily seek to bring some thirty-four Indonesian shippers into this action.

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Bluebook (online)
141 F.R.D. 689, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5347, 1992 WL 80810, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plywood-panels-inc-v-mv-thalia-laed-1992.