St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Superior Court, Creek County

• Decision Date: 13 July 1954
• Docket Number: LOUIS-SAN,No. 36414,36414
• Citation: 1954 OK 223,276 P.2d 773
• Parties: . Supreme Court of Oklahoma
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 773

276 P.2d 773

1954 OK 223

ST. LOUIS-SAN FRANCISCO RY. CO. v. SUPERIOR COURT, CREEK COUNTY et al.

No. 36414.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

July 13, 1954.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. The rule of 'forum non conveniens' is an equitable one embracing the discretionary power of a court to decline to exercise jurisdiction it has over a transitory cause of action, when it believes that such action may be more appropriately and justly tried elsewhere.

2. Neither the Federal Employers' Liability Act nor other federal statutes make it mandatory on Oklahoma courts to exercise jurisdiction under such Act.

3. Under the doctrine of 'forum non conveniens', Oklahoma district court may decline jurisdiction of action brought under Federal Employers' Liability Act by nonresident plaintiff against foreign corporation for personal injuries occurring in another state, without denying the plaintiff equal protection of the laws and without violating the privileges and immunities clause of the federal Constitution.

James L. Homire, St. Louis, Mo., Satterfield, Franklin & Harmon, Oklahoma City, for petitioner.

Arthurs & Blackstock, Bristow, Bishop & Driscoll, Seminole, for respondent.

Rainey, Flynn, Green & Anderson, Oklahoma City, General Solicitors, A. T. & S. F. Ry. Co.; Savage, Gibson, Benefield & Shelton, Oklahoma City, Attorneys for Oklahoma, C., R. I. & P. R. Co.; Dan M. Welch, Oklahoma City, General Attorney for Oklahoma, M.-K.-T. R. R Co., amici curiae.

WILLIAMS, Justice.

This is an original proceeding in this court commenced by St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, hereinafter referred to as petitioner, to prohibit the respondent, Hon. Wm. L. Cheatham as Superior Judge, from proceeding in the cases of J. E. Murphey v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, No. 4816, in the Superior Court of Creek County, and Adolphus L. Kirk v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, No. 4815, in said court, on the ground that said court is an inappropriate and inconvenient forum for the trial of said transitory actions.

In the alternative, petitioner asks this court to assume jurisdiction in an original proceeding under its constitutional superintending control of inferior courts, and to issue such proper remedial orders to the respondent as may be necessary to insure uniformity of decision among the various inferior courts of record within the State

It is alleged in the application that the question to be presented involves a conflict of opinion among the inferior courts of this state, which cannot be raised on appeal.

It appears from the application that in the latter part of 1953 three damage suits for personal injuries under the Federal Employers' Liability Act were filed against petitioner in Seminole County, Oklahoma. All three plaintiffs in these suits, J. E. Murphey, Adolphus L. Kirk, and Ernest R. Maples, were, and are, bona fide citizens and residents of Springfield, Missouri. Petitioner is a Missouri Corporation. None of the alleged torts occurred in the State of Oklahoma. Petitioner filed verified motions to dismiss said actions, supported by affidavits, but before said motions were heard, plaintiffs Murphey and Kirk dismissed their actions without prejudice. The Maples case is still pending on petitioner's motion to dismiss. On February 7, 1954, Plaintiffs Murphey and Kirk refiled their actions in the Bristow division of the Superior Court of Creek County, Oklahoma. Petitioner again filed verified motions to dismiss said actions, supported by affidavits. At the hearing held on these motions oral testimony was offered, in addition to the verified motions and supporting affidavits, and the court took judicial notice of the status of the civil docket. No evidence or affidavits in opposition were offered by plaintiffs in either case. Petitioner's showing reasonably tended to establish the following situation:

Plaintiff Murphey, a resident of Springfield, Missouri, was allegedly injured at that place; all of the witnesses except two reside at Springfield, Missouri, and the other two witnesses reside at St. Louis, Missouri; that petitioner is amenable to service of process in both State and Federal Courts in Springfield, Missouri, and these courts are available to plaintiff for a prompt hearing and determination of his claim. Plaintiff Kirk, also a resident of Springfield, Missouri, was allegedly injured at Arkansas City, Kansas; that none of the witnesses or parties reside in Creek County, Oklahoma, but that some of them reside at or near Arkansas City, Kansas, others reside at or near Springfield, Missouri, and all of them reside at places closer to either of those places than Creek County, Oklahoma; that petitioner is amenable to service of process of both State and Federal Courts, in both Springfield, Missouri, and Arkansas City, Kansas. Petitioner further showed that the cost to it of defending these cases in Creek County, Oklahoma, would exceed the cost of trying them either at Springfield, Missouri or Arkansas City, Kansas, by over $4000.

Neither plaintiff advanced any reason why the cases should be tried in Creek County, Oklahoma, but rather took the position that they were entitled to such trial as a matter of right.

It is undisputed that the Superior Court of Creek County has both jurisdiction and venue to try these cases, and petitioner's motions to dismiss were based solely on the proposition that such court is an inappropriate and inconvenient forum for the trial of these cases.

After hearing the motions to dismiss, the court held that if it had both jurisdiction and venue, it had no power to dismiss said actions on the grounds of inappropriate and inconvenient forum.

Petitioner's application further shows by appropriate exhibit that the District Courts of Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties have held that they have the inherent power to dismiss actions such as those here in question on the grounds of inappropriate and inconvenient forum, thus indicating a conflict of authority among the inferior courts of the state.

We are thus presented with the question of whether a district or superior court of this state can, because of inconvenience to court and parties, dismiss an action brought by a non-resident plaintiff against a foreign corporation on a cause of action arising outside this state.

Apparently the question is one of first impression with this court. We are therefore called on, in effect, to determine the availability in Oklahoma of the doctrine of 'forum non conveniens' as a ground for refusal by a court to exercise jurisdiction over a cause of action which arose outside the State's boundaries.

The rule of 'forum non conveniens' is an equitable one embracing the discretionary power of a court to decline to exercise the jurisdiction it has over a transitory cause of action when it believes that the action before it may be more appropriately and justly tried elsewhere. Leet v. Union Pac. R. R. Co., 25 Cal.2d 605, 155 P.2d 42, 158 A.L.R. 1008. More simply stated, it is the principle that a court may resist imposition upon its jurisdiction even when jurisdiction is authorized by the letter of a general venue statute. Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 67 S.Ct. 839, 91 L.Ed. 1055.

The doctrine was recently adopted by the Supreme Court of Utah in a lengthy and well-reasoned opinion in the case of Mooney v. Denver & R. G. W. R. Co., 221 P.2d 628. The opinion therein contains an exhaustive resume of the authorities bearing on the question from the various jurisdictions.

The Supreme Court of California also recently adopted the doctrine as applied to Federal Employer's Liability cases in the case of Price v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., 268 P.2d 457. The history of the application of the doctrine in California is most interesting and also most pertinent. In the case of Leet v. Union Pac. R. R. Co., 25 Cal.2d 605, 155 P.2d 42, the California court held that a court of that state having jurisdiction over an action under the F.E.L.A. could not refuse to exercise it. The holding was based primarily on the court's view that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Miles v. Illinois Central R. R. Co., 315 U.S. 698, 62 S.Ct. 827, 86 L.Ed. 1129, was completely decisive that the doctrine of forum non conveniens is no justification for a state court's refusing jurisdiction of an action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., and the court concluded that the state court must take jurisdiction. Following this decision by the California court, the United States Supreme Court considered the question in the case of State of Missouri ex rel. Southern R. Co. v. Mayfield, 340 U.S. 1, 71 S.Ct. 1, 95 L.Ed. 3, 6, and declared that the Miles case did not limit the power of a state to deny access to its courts to persons seeking recovery under the Federal Employers' Liability Act if in similar cases the state for reasons of local policy denies resort to its courts and enforces its policies impartially, so as not to involve discrimination against Employers' Liability Act suits and not to offend against the privileges and immunities clauses of the constitution. The court in its opinion expressly recognized the power of each state to reject or accept the doctrine of forum non conveniens for all actions begun in its courts, including those arising under the F.E.L.A., so long as it discriminates against neither citizens of sister states nor F.E.L.A. actions. The California Supreme Court thereafter reconsidered the question in the case of Price v. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co., supra, and thereupon reversed its previous holding in the Leet case, supra, holding that upon a proper showing and within the limitations imposed by the privileges and immunities clause of the federal constitution the doctrine of forum non conveniens may be applied in that state.

Respondent contends that a state court cannot decline jurisdiction of an action brought under the Federal...