Atlantic Marine Construction Co., Inc. v. U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

As a reminder, these are the four questions:

(1)   Must the federal district court transfer or dismiss?  The answer here is easy to state:  A federal district court must dismiss if venue is improper or if it cannot exercise jurisdiction over the person/property (either one).

(2)   May the federal court transfer, or must it dismiss?  The answer depends on whether another federal district exists in which venue is proper and jurisdiction over the person/property is present.  If so, the federal court may transfer. If not, it cannot do so; it must dismiss.

(3)   If the federal court need not transfer (#1 is "no"), but may transfer (#2 is "yes"), should it transfer?  The answer here is easy to state:  apply the forum non conveniens analysis.

(4)   If the federal court transfers, what consequences are there for the applicable law?  The answer here is not easy to state.  You need the Greiner Happy Court rule.

This case concerns questions (3) and (4).  In particular, it concerns the issue of horizontal choice of law in diversity cases after a transfer when the parties have a contract that includes a forum selection clause.

By way of first reminder, recall the basic structure of the answer to question (3):  unless the plaintiff is from outside the United States, presume that the plaintiff's choice of forum should be honored, then apply the public interest factors and the private interest factors from forum non conveniens to see if they outweigh this presumption.

By way of second reminder, remember the Greiner Happy Court rule:

1) If a transferor court in a diversity case has personal jurisdiction and venue is proper there, then we say that the transferor court is "happy."  In that circumstance, the horizontal choice of law rules and analysis of the transferor court's state apply to the case now being litigated in the transferee court.

2) If in a diversity case either the transferor court lacks personal jurisdiction or venue is improper, then we say that the transferor court is "unhappy."  In that circumstance, the horizontal choice of law rules and analysis of the transferee court's state apply.

But:  what happens when the parties to the lawsuit have a contract with a forum selection clause?  This case holds that two aspects of the answer to question (3) and one aspect of the answer to question (4) change.