Wilmot v. Marriott Hurghada Management, Inc.

712 F. App'x 200
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedOctober 13, 2017
Docket16-3211
StatusUnpublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 712 F. App'x 200 (Wilmot v. Marriott Hurghada Management, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilmot v. Marriott Hurghada Management, Inc., 712 F. App'x 200 (3d Cir. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION *

SCIRICA, Circuit Judge.

Guy A. E. Wilmot appeals the order of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware dismissing his complaint for forum non conveniens. We will affirm. 1 .

I,

■ This case stems from an alleged poolside injury that Guy Wilmot, a citizen and resident of the United Kingdom, suffered during a vacation at the Marriott Resort in Hurghada, Egypt. After the injury, Wilmot underwent surgery for a broken shoulder in Egypt, and sought further treatment from doctors and physical therapists in the United Kingdom. Those who witnessed the incident, assisted Wilmot afterward, and medicálly treated his injuries all remain in either Egypt or the United Kingdom. Any medical records generated from Wilmot’s care are in either Egypt or the United Kingdom as well.

Wilmot brought this action in the District of Delaware against Marriott Hur-ghada Management, Inc., and its parent Marriott International, Inc., (collectively “Marriott”), both Delaware corporations with principal places of business in Bethesda, Maryland.

In response, Marriott filed a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens, contending Egypt was a more appropriate forum for resolving this case. Marriott agreed to accept service of process in Egypt and consent to the Egyptian courts’ jurisdiction. Marriott also submitted an affidavit by Tarek Ahmed Roushdy Ezzo, Managing Partner of the Egyptian law firm Ezzo Advocates, which attested Wilmot’s claim would be cognizable in Egyptian courts. After Wilmot responded, Marriott’s reply also offered the United Kingdom as an available and adequate alternative forum. Marriott agreed to accept service of process in the United Kingdom and to waive any jurisdictional or statute-of-limitations defenses to claims brought there. Wilmot sought and received leave to file a sur-reply responding to the points raised in Marriott’s reply.

The District Court found little indication that Wilmot, a foreign plaintiff, chose the District of Delaware based on convenience and consequently afforded that choice “significantly less deference” than the presumption of convenience usually afforded to a plaintiffs forum choice. The District Court then determined Egypt and the United Kingdom were adequate alternative fora available for resolving Wilmot’s claims. And after weighing relevant public and private interests and concluding that trial in the District of Delaware would unduly inconvenience the parties compared with resolution in Egypt or the United Kingdom, the District Court granted Marriott’s motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens.

Wilmot appealed.

II.

The doctrine of forum non conveniens places within a district court’s discretion the option of “resisting] imposition upon its jurisdiction,” Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 507, 67 S.Ct. 839, 91 L.Ed. 1055 (1947), when trial would “establish ... oppressiveness and vexation to a defendant ... out of all proportion to plaintiffs convenience.” Koster v. (Am.) Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co., 330 U.S. 518, 524, 67 S.Ct. 828, 91 L.Ed. 1067 (1947); Kisano Trade & Invest Ltd. v. Lemster, 737 F.3d 869, 873 (3d Cir. 2013); Windt v. Qwest Commc’ns Int'l, Inc., 529 F.3d 183, 189 (3d Cir. 2008). We have outlined four factors to guide district courts’ exercise of discretion: “(1) the amount of deference to be afforded to [plaintiffs] choice of forum; (2) the availability of an adequate alternative forum where defendants are amenable to process and [plaintiffs] claims are cognizable; (3) relevant ‘private interest’ factors affecting the convenience of the litigants; and (4) relevant ‘public interest’ factors affecting the convenience of the forum.” Kisano Trade & Invest, 737 F.3d at 873 (footnote omitted).

When reviewing a district court’s decision on a forum non conveniens motion, “[o]ur scope of review ... is limited.” Lony v. E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., 886 F.2d 628, 631 (3d Cir. 1989). In .evaluating such motions, “the district court is accorded substantial flexibility .., and ‘[e]ach case turns on its facts.’ ” Van Cauwenberghe v. Biard, 486 U.S. 517, 529, 108 S.Ct. 1945, 100 L.Ed.2d 517 (1988) (alteration in original) (citation omitted) (quoting Williams v. Green Bay & W. R.R. Co., 326 U.S. 549, 557, 66 S.Ct. 284, 90 L.Ed. 311 (1946)). “The forum non conveniens determination is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court.” Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno, 454 U.S. 235, 257, 102 S.Ct. 252, 70 L.Ed.2d 419 (1981). Such a determination “may be reversed only when there has been a clear abuse of discretion; where the court has considered all relevant public and private interest factors, and where its balancing of these factors is reasonable, its decision deserves substantial deference.” Id.

III.

Wilmot asserts the District Court abused its discretion in three respects. He contends the District Court abused its discretion by affording his choice of forum less deference than the strong presumption of convenience a plaintiffs forum choice generally enjoys; by determining Egypt and the United Kingdom are both adequate fora for resolving this case; and by concluding the private and public interests in this case warrant dismissal.

A.

We first consider whether the District Court abused its discretion by affording Wilmot’s forum choice “significantly less deference” than is ordinarily afforded a plaintiffs choice of forum. Ordinarily, a domestic plaintiffs choice of forum enjoys “a strong presumption of convenience,” Windt, 529 F.3d at 190, but for foreign plaintiffs “the choice of a United States forum ‘deserves less deference,’” Kisano Trade & Invest, 737 F.3d at 874 (quoting Piper Aircraft, 454 U.S. at 256, 102 S.Ct. 252). This approach stems from the inquiry’s emphasis on convenience and a recognition that a foreign plaintiffs choice.to bring a case in the United States is less likely to be based on convenience. See Lony, 886 F.2d at 634 (explaining “the reason for giving a foreign plaintiffs choice less deference is not xenophobia, but merely a reluctance to assume that the choice is a convenient one”). Indeed, “the touchstone inquiry regarding the level of deference owed a plaintiffs choice of forum is not the ‘citizenship or residence of the parties,’ but the convenience of the forum.” Kisano Trade & Invest, 737 F.3d at 875 (quoting Pollux Holding Ltd. v. Chase Manhattan Bank, 329 F.3d 64

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712 F. App'x 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilmot-v-marriott-hurghada-management-inc-ca3-2017.