Weg Industrias v. Compania De Seguros

937 So. 2d 248, 2006 WL 2548227
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 6, 2006
Docket3D05-1801
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 937 So. 2d 248 (Weg Industrias v. Compania De Seguros) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weg Industrias v. Compania De Seguros, 937 So. 2d 248, 2006 WL 2548227 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

937 So.2d 248 (2006)

WEG INDUSTRIAS, S.A., etc., et al., Appellants,
v.
COMPANIA DE SEGUROS GENERALES GRANAI, etc., Appellee.

No. 3D05-1801.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

September 6, 2006.

*249 Becker & Poliakoff and Mitchell W. Mandler and Manjit S. Gill, Fort Lauderdale; Holland & Knight and Rodolfo Sorondo, Jr., Miami, and Lenore C. Smith, for appellants.

Renee Adwar, for appellee.

Before SHEPHERD, SUAREZ, and ROTHENBERG, JJ.

SHEPHERD, J.

This is an appeal from a non-final order denying a motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds. As is not uncommon in our courts, the underlying transaction and most significantly affected litigants are all housed offshore. We accordingly hold, as we did recently in our en banc decision in Tananta v. Cruise Ships Catering & Servs. Int'l N.V., 909 So.2d 874, 886 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004), that the resolution of the dispute between these parties must also be housed elsewhere.

JURISDICTION

Although not raised by the parties, we pause to consider the grounds by which we *250 have jurisdiction to entertain this appeal. See Dep't of Prof'l Regulation v. Rentfast, Inc., 467 So.2d 486, 487 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985); see also Licata v. State, 80 Fla. 554, 556, 86 So. 427 (1920)("Where the record shows a want of appellate jurisdiction in this court, the writ of error will be dismissed sua sponte.").

Some years ago, a panel of this court opined that an order granting or denying a motion to dismiss on the ground of forum non conveniens is "an appealable interlocutory `order[] relating to venue' under [former interlocutory appeal] rule 4.2[a] F.A.R." Southern Ry. Co. v. McCubbins, 196 So.2d 512, 514 (Fla. 3d DCA 1967). Although we are bound by McCubbins and its progeny, we are not so sanguine about the vigor of its reasoning, especially in light of the substantial revision made to the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure in 1977. See In Re: Proposed Appellate Rules, 351 So.2d 981, 997 (Fla.1977). With the benefit of historical hindsight, we would conclude today that a party whose case has been dismissed via a grant of a motion to dismiss on the ground of forum non conveniens has a constitutional right to have that order reviewed by this court, see Art. V, § 4(b)(1), Fla. Const. ("District Courts of Appeal shall have jurisdiction to hear appeals, that may be taken as of right from final judgments or orders of trial courts."); see also Fla. R.App. P. 9.030(b)(1)(A); Augustin v. Blount, Inc., 573 So.2d 104, 105 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)("A final order is one which constitutes an end to the labor in the cause."), and that review of orders denying motions to dismiss on the ground of forum non conveniens, being interlocutory in character and not expressly included among those orders reviewable under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130, are reviewable solely via certiorari. See Art. V, § 4(b)(3), Fla. Const., Fla. R.App. P. 9.030(b)(2)(A)(permitting review of "non-final orders of lower tribunals other than as prescribed by rule 9.130"); State v. Pettis, 520 So.2d 250, 252 (Fla.1988)(pointing out that "the reference to rule 9.130 is not inadvertent because the orders covered by that rule are ones from which an interlocutory appeal may be taken as contrasted to a petition for certiorari"); cf. Art. V, § 4(b)(1)(permitting review of interlocutory orders "to the extent provided by rules adopted by the supreme court").

We consider this analysis more sound than the McCubbins analysis for two reasons. First, in reaching its result, the McCubbins court placed sole and exclusive reliance upon Southern Railway Co. v. Bowling, 129 So.2d 433 (Fla. 3d DCA 1961). However, Bowling, while a forum non conveniens case, is a fractured three-way split of an opinion in which, as long ago suggested by Associate Judge Stanley Milledge in dissent, the conclusion reached on the reviewability of the order presented was at best "implicit" and therefore, in our humble view, of dubious precedential value. See id. at 438 (Milledge, A.J., dissenting).[1] Secondly, the language for former *251 interlocutory appeal rule 4.2(a), on which in 1967 the McCubbins court relied, is in our judgment materially different than that appearing in today's successor rule by which we, of course, are governed.

In 1967, Florida Appellate Rule 4.2(a) read in relevant part:

Rule 4.2. Interlocutory Appeals
a. Application. Appeals may be prosecuted in accordance with this rule from interlocutory orders in civil actions that, from the subject matter of the relief sought, are such as formerly were cognizable in equity, and from interlocutory orders relating to venue or jurisdiction over the person, from orders granting partial summary judgment on liability in civil actions, . . . . Nothing in this rule shall preclude the review of an interlocutory order in a civil action on appeal from the final judgment as otherwise indicated by these rules. This rule shall not be construed as limiting or affecting the power of the district courts of appeal or the circuit courts in reviewing any appropriate interlocutory order by common law certiorari.

(emphasis added).

In 1977, Florida Appellate Rule 4.2 was replaced by Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130. The new rule included among those interlocutory orders appealable as of right "non-final orders . . . that (A) concern venue." Fla. R.App. P. 9.130(a)(3)(A)(emphasis added). We believe the language of the new rule is narrower than that of the former rule. Stated otherwise, the range of orders that under today's rule "concern venue" is not, in our view, coextensive with those formerly "relate[d] to venue." We find support for this interpretation of the present-day rule in the Fourth District Court of Appeal's recent decision in Eggers v. Eggers, 776 So.2d 1096, 1098 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001)("A motion to dismiss/transfer venue due to the impropriety of the plaintiff's venue selection is significantly different than a motion to transfer on forum non conveniens grounds."); see also Christine Russell, Comment, Should Florida Be A "Courthouse for the World?": The Florida Doctrine of Forum Non Conveniens and Foreign Plaintiffs, Kinney v. Continental Insurance Co., 674 So.2d 86 (Fla. 1996), 10 Fla. J. Int'l L. 353, 354-55 (1995)("The common law doctrine of forum non conveniens allows courts with proper jurisdiction and venue over a cause of action to dismiss a case that might be "fairly or more conveniently litigated elsewhere."). But see Committee Notes to 1977 Amendment ("Allowable interlocutory appeals from orders in actions formerly cognizable as civil actions are specified, and are essentially the same as under former rule 4.2.").

On the other hand, as previously stated, we recognize McCubbins is controlling authority in this district. Further, we are not inclined to suggest en banc consideration of this matter for two reasons. Cf. In re Rule 9.331, Determination of Causes by Dist. Court of Appeal En Banc, etc., 416 So.2d 1127, 1128 (Fla.1982)("[I]n most instances, a three-judge panel confronted with precedent with which it disagrees will suggest an en banc hearing."). First, in the many ensuing years since this court pronounced McCubbins, McCubbins

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937 So. 2d 248, 2006 WL 2548227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weg-industrias-v-compania-de-seguros-fladistctapp-2006.