Washington v. May Dept. Stores

• Decision Date: 23 June 1978
• Docket Number: No. 12375.,12375.
• Citation: 388 A.2d 484
• Parties: Ernest A. WASHINGTON, Appellant, v. The MAY DEPARTMENT STORES et al., Appellees.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

388 A.2d 484

Ernest A. WASHINGTON, Appellant, v. The MAY DEPARTMENT STORES et al., Appellees.

No. 12375.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued April 27, 1978.

Decided June 23, 1978.

Vincent Nappo, Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Donald P. Maiberger, Washington, D. C., for appellees.

Before NEWMAN, Chief Judge, and KERN and YEAGLEY, Associate Judges.

YEAGLEY, Associate Judge:

This appeal requires that we determine whether the trial court erred in granting appellees' motion to dismiss a complaint on the ground of forum non conveniens. Appellant is a resident of the District of Columbia, who sought damages for false arrest, malicious prosecution, defamation, and negligence allegedly attributable to appellee, a New York corporation which operates the Hecht Company Department Stores in the Washington, D. C., metropolitan area. The events which gave rise to this lawsuit occurred at the Hecht's Marlow Heights, Maryland store. On October 31, 1975, appellant was arrested while shopping at the Marlow Heights store, and was charged with shoplifting. Items for which he had, in fact, paid were taken from him by store authorities and he was released. On December 5, 1975, appellant returned to the Marlow Heights store to recover these items, after allegedly having been assured by a Hecht representative that he would have no problem doing so. He was again arrested, handcuffed and detained. He was ultimately acquitted of criminal charges related to that incident.

Appellant filed this lawsuit on October 29, 1976. On April 20, 1977, the trial court conducted a hearing on appellees' motion to dismiss appellant's suit, advanced on the ground that because the incidents in question had occurred in Maryland, the courts of that state were a more convenient forum. Although the trial court appeared inclined to grant appellees' motion, it withheld decision pending the filing of additional information, including a list of appellant's witnesses and their addresses, and a statement on the effect of the statute of limitations if appellant were required to file suit in Maryland.

By order dated May 11, 1977, the trial court granted appellees' motion and dismissed appellant's suit.¹ We hold, for reasons we shall discuss, that the trial court abused its discretion in so doing, and we accordingly reverse.

It is well settled in the District of Columbia that decisions on questions of forum non conveniens are committed to the sound discretion of the trial court. This discretion is not unlimited, however, and we will examine the trial court's action in light of well-established criteria for applying the doctrine. Cohane v. Arpeja-California, Inc., D.C.App., 385 A.2d 153 (1978); Haynes v. Carr, D.C.App., 379 A.2d 1178 (1977); Carr v. Bio-Medical Applications of Washington, Inc., D.C.App., 366 A.2d 1089 (1976); Florida Education Association v. National Education Association, D.C.App., 354 A.2d 853 (1976); Dorati v. Dorati, D.C.App., 342 A.2d 18 (1975); Pitts v. Woodward & Lothrop, D.C.App., 327 A.2d 816 (1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 911, 95 S.Ct. 832, 42 L.Ed.2d 841 (1975); Frost v. Peoples Drug Store, Inc., D.C.App., 327 A.2d 810 (1974).

These criteria, announced in the landmark case of Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 67 S.Ct. 839, 91 L.Ed. 1055 (1947), were recently restated by this court:

In . . . Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, the Supreme Court identified two separate interests which must be considered in assessing a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens — the private interest of the litigant, and the public interest. Factors relevant to the private interest concern the ease, expedition, and expense of the trial, and include the relative ease of access to proof; availability and cost of compulsory process; the enforceability of a judgment once obtained; evidence of an attempt by the plaintiff to vex or harass the defendant by his choice of the forum; and other obstacles to a fair trial. . . . Likewise, the public interest is a relevant consideration in applying the doctrine. Factors related to the public interest include administrative difficulties caused by local court dockets congested with foreign litigation; the imposition of jury duty on a community having no relationship to the litigation; and the inappropriateness of requiring local courts to interpret the laws of another jurisdiction. [Carr v. Bio-Medical Applications of Washington, Inc., supra at 1092.]

This court has observed that "[f]oremost among [Gulf's] criteria was the principle that `unless the balance is strongly in favor of the defendant, the plaintiffs' choice of forum should rarely be disturbed,'" Cohane v. Arpeja-California, Inc., supra at 156, citing Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, supra, 330 U.S. at 508, 67 S.Ct. 839; see also Gross v. Owen, 95 U.S.App.D.C. 222, 221 F.2d 94 (1955). Accordingly, we have always considered important in determining the propriety of dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds whether the plaintiff is a resident of the District of Columbia. In Haynes v. Carr, supra, we upheld the forum non conveniens dismissal of an action to increase child support brought by appellant wife, a Maryland resident, against appellee husband, also a resident of that state. The children resided in Maryland. The only connection with the District of Columbia, and an insufficient one, was that the husband was employed here.

In Dorati v. Dorati, supra, we upheld forum non conveniens dismissal largely because plaintiff was a resident of Italy. In both Pitts v. Woodward & Lothrop, supra, and Frost v. People Drug Store, supra, we upheld dismissal of suits brought by Maryland residents; in each case, only appellee had any connection with the District of Columbia, and appellee wished to be sued in Maryland. Finally, in Florida Education Association v. National Education Association, supra, we affirmed denial of a motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds, in part because plaintiff was a corporation of the District of Columbia.

This is not to say that plaintiff's status as a resident of the District of Columbia precludes dismissal of his suit on forum non conveniens grounds. In Carr v. Bio-Medical Applications of Washington, Inc., supra, in which we affirmed dismissal of a District of Columbia plaintiff's action, we expressly rejected such a rule, observing that "it [was] unwarranted and would severely undermine the trial court's broad discretion in such matters." Id. at 1093. Carr was a wrongful death action brought by the decedent's wife, a District of Columbia resident, alleging that negligence in the administration of blood dialysis to her husband caused his death. The dialysis had been performed in Maryland by codefendant Maryland physicians organized as a professional corporation in that state. Codefendant Bio-Medical Applications of Washington, Inc., was a Delaware corporation licensed to do business solely in Maryland. The suit called into play the Maryland wrongful death statute, and presented a multitude of complex issues to be resolved under Maryland law, based in large part on the testimony of Maryland...