Ex Parte Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom

• Decision Date: 01 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. 1060479.,1060479.
• Citation: 978 So. 2d 12
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Parties: Ex parte MILLER, HAMILTON, SNIDER & ODOM, LLC, et al. (In re Bryan A. Corr, Sr., et al. v. Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom, LLC, et al.).

978 So.2d 12

Ex parte MILLER, HAMILTON, SNIDER & ODOM, LLC, et al. (In re Bryan A. Corr, Sr., et al. v. Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom, LLC, et al.).

No. 1060479.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

June 1, 2007.

Rehearing Denied August 24, 2007.

Robert M. Girardeau and Jeffrey N. Windham of Huie, Fernambucq & Stewart, LLP, Birmingham, for petitioners.

David O. Upshaw and J. Christopher Miller of Ogle, Liles & Upshaw, LLP, Birmingham, for respondents.

WOODALL, Justice.

Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom, LLC ("the law firm"), and three of its attorneys, Ben H. Harris III, John C.H. Miller, Jr., and Giles G. Perkins, the defendants in an action pending in the Baldwin Circuit Court, petition for a writ of mandamus directing the circuit court to vacate its order transferring the action to the Jefferson Circuit Court. We grant the petition and issue the writ.

On March 18, 2005, the law firm and Harris, Miller, and Perkins were sued in the Blount Circuit Court by Bryan A. Corr, Sr.; Doris Corr, individually and as the executrix of the estate of R.C. Corr, Jr., deceased; Tina M. Corr; and Corr, Inc. (collectively "the Corrs"). The law firm and its attorneys filed a motion to transfer the Corrs' action to the Baldwin Circuit Court. The trial court denied their motion to transfer, and they petitioned this Court for a writ of mandamus.

This Court held that venue was not proper in Blount County. Therefore, we granted the petition for the writ of mandamus and directed the Blount Circuit Court to vacate its order denying the defendants' motion to transfer and to enter an order transferring the action to the Baldwin Circuit Court. Ex parte Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom, LLC, 942 So.2d 334 (Ala. 2006).

After the case was transferred to, and docketed by, the Baldwin Circuit Court, the Corrs filed a motion to transfer the action to the Jefferson Circuit Court based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens, codified at § 6-3-21.1, Ala.Code 1975. The trial court, over the defendants' objections, granted the Corrs' motion and ordered that the case be transferred to the Jefferson Circuit Court. The law firm and Miller, Harris, and Perkins timely filed this petition for a writ of mandamus. Pending this Court's review of this mandamus petition, the case file has not been sent to, or docketed by, the Jefferson Circuit Court.

A petition for a writ of mandamus is the proper means for challenging an order transferring an action to another county. Ex parte Wilson, 854 So.2d 1106, 1109 (Ala.2002). "`[A] writ of mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, which requires the petitioner to demonstrate a clear, legal right to the relief sought, or an abuse of discretion.'" Ex parte Leasecomm Corp., 886 So.2d 58, 62 (Ala.2003)(quoting Ex parte Palm Harbor Homes, Inc., 798 So.2d 656, 660 (Ala. 2001)). The law firm and its attorneys have demonstrated a clear entitlement to the relief they seek.

The doctrine of forum non conveniens is applicable only "[w]ith respect to civil actions filed in an appropriate venue." § 6-3-21.1(a) (emphasis added). This statutory language is consistent with "the fundamental premise of all transfers for convenience—i.e., that venue is good at the time of filing, but that a transfer to a better venue is, or has become, appropriate." Ex parte Wilson, 854 So.2d at 1112 (emphasis added). Consequently, as this Court has stated, the doctrine of forum non conveniens, as codified at § 6-3-21.1, "has a field of operation only where an action is commenced in a county in which venue is appropriate." Ex parte New England Mut. Life Ins. Co., 663 So.2d 952, 956 (Ala.1995). See also Ex parte Townsend, 589 So.2d 711, 714 (Ala.1991); Montgomery Elevator Co. v. Pinkney, 628 So.2d 767, 768 (Ala.Civ.App.1993).

The Corrs chose to commence their action in the Blount Circuit Court, an improper venue. Consequently, their case was transferred to the Baldwin Circuit Court, where it must remain, because the doctrine of forum non conveniens is inapplicable. Therefore, we grant the petition for the writ of mandamus and direct the Baldwin Circuit Court to vacate its order transferring the action to the Jefferson Circuit Court.¹

PETITION GRANTED; WRIT ISSUED.

COBB, C.J., and SEE, LYONS, STUART, SMITH, BOLIN, and PARKER, JJ., concur.

MURDOCK, J., dissents.

MURDOCK, Justice (dissenting).

Based on the language of the specific statutory provision at issue; the stated purpose and object of that statutory provision and the conditions to which it may apply; and the need to avoid unnecessary conflict with, and indeed to harmonize that provision with, other statutory provisions and rules, I must read § 6-3-21.1(a), Ala. Code 1975, as generally extending to plaintiffs and defendants alike the right to seek a transfer of an action from one proper venue to another, even when the action was initially filed in an improper venue. Further, this interpretation of § 6-3-21.1 is consistent with the rule that obtains in most other jurisdictions.

"A statute should be construed not only in light of its language, but also in light of its purpose, its object, its relation to other laws, and the conditions that may arise under its provisions." Ex parte Edwards, 816 So.2d 98, 106 (Ala.2001). Furthermore, "[i]t is a well established rule of statutory interpretation that the law favors rational and sensible construction...." Crowley v. Bass, 445 So.2d 902, 904 (Ala. 1984).

The "purpose" or "object" of § 6-3-21.1 is to provide for the transfer of an action from one forum to another "in the interest of justice," and particularly where to do so would serve the "convenience of the parties and witnesses." If the legislature has made a policy decision that the just and economical outcome of legal actions is to be pursued in this manner, I am not inclined to interpret the statute the legislature enacted for this purpose as applying to only one class of litigants, thereby only partially achieving the stated goal, especially where the language of the statutory provision does not call for such an interpretation.

By its terms, § 6-3-21.1(a) is not limited to either "plaintiffs or defendants" in providing the right to seek a change of venue. In this regard, § 6-3-21.1(a) contrasts with the immediately preceding section of the Code, in which the legislature demonstrated its willingness and ability to provide such a right only to "defendants" when that is what it intended. See § 6-3-21, Ala.Code 1975 (addressing the right of "defendants" to move for a change of venue under certain circumstances).

In addition to being called upon to construe a statute in accordance with the purpose and object of the statute, we are to "`consider the statute as a whole and ... construe the statute reasonably so as to harmonize [the statute's own] provisions.'" Proctor v. Riley, 903 So.2d 786, 789 (Ala. 2004) (quoting McRae v. Security Pac. Hous. Servs., Inc., 628 So.2d 429, 432 (Ala. 1993)). Furthermore, it is well settled that separate "statutes must be construed in pari materia in light of their application to the same general subject matter.... Our obligation is to construe provisions `in favor of each other to form a harmonious plan,' if it is possible to do so." Opinion of the Justices No. 334, 599 So.2d 1166, 1168 (Ala.1992) (quoting Ex parte Coffee County Comm'n, 583 So.2d 985, 988 (Ala.1991)). See also Rule 81, Ala. R. Civ. P., Committee Comments on 1973 Adoption (noting that when a statutory provision is inconsistent with a Rule of Civil Procedure, the statute shall govern); see generally Rule 1, Ala. R. Civ. P. ("These rules shall be construed ... to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action.").

Not only does § 6-3-21.1(a), by its terms, not limit the rights it grants only to plaintiffs or defendants, the very next subsection of the statute, § 6-3-21.1(b), expressly refers to "[t]he right of a party to move for a change or transfer of venue pursuant to this statute." (Emphasis added.) Moreover, § 6-3-21.1(b) expressly states that this right of "a party" to move for a change of venue is "cumulative and in addition to the rights of a party to move for a change or transfer of venue pursuant to § 6-3-20, § 6-3-21, or [the] Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure." (Emphasis added.)

The law firm and the individual lawyers ("the petitioners") rely on language in Rule 82(d)(3), Ala. R. Civ. P., providing that a "defendant" can choose the court to which a case is to be transferred when a plaintiff files the action in a county in which venue is improper. What Rule 82(d)(3) specifically says is that when the venue of an action is improper, the defendant "shall have the right to select such other court to which the action shall be transferred" (emphasis added); it does not state that the defendant shall have the right to select the forum in which the case ultimately shall be tried. Rule 82(d)(3) merely reflects the fact that, when a case is pending in a court that has no authority over it because venue is improper, before any discretionary orders regarding the management or prosecution of the case are entered—including any order choosing which of two proper venues should be selected for the trial of the case—the case must first be transferred to a court with the authority to exercise such discretion and to make such decisions and that the defendant should have the right to make the initial choice of forum to which the case will be transferred for that purpose. Nothing in Rule 82(d)(3) provides that venue cannot thereafter be changed by the trial court if good cause exists to do so. In that regard, and to state the obvious, § 6-3-21.1 is a statute, not a rule as is Rule 82(d). A reading of Rule 82 as authorizing the defendant to select a forum to which the plaintiff and the court are thereafter unalterably bound would conflict with a reading of § 6-3-21.1(a) and (b) that is "rational and sensible" and that fully promotes the purpose and object intended by the legislature in...