Creel v. Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, LLC, et al.
| Docket Number: | 2005-CA-01875-SCT | |
| Supreme Court: | Opinion Link Opinion Date: 03-08-2007 Opinion Author: WALLER, P..J. Holding: REVERSED AND RENDERED. Case dismissed without prejudice. |
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| Additional Case Information: |
Topic: Products liability - Transfer of venue - M.R.C.P. 20 - Forum non conveniens Judge(s) Concurring: SMITH, C.J., COBB, P.J., EASLEY, CARLSON, DICKINSON AND RANDOLPH, JJ. Non Participating Judge(s): GRAVES, J. Concurs in Result Only: DIAZ, J. Procedural History: Summary Judgment & Transfer of venue Nature of the Case: CIVIL - TORTS - OTHER THAN PERSONAL INJURY & PROPERTY DAMAGE |
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| Trial Court: |
Date of Trial Judgment: 08-15-2005 Appealed from: RANKIN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT Judge: WILLIAM E. CHAPMAN, III Disposition: Granted Appellee's Motion for Summary Judgment Case Number: 2005-16 |
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| Note: | Products Liability Suit-- Rankin County Chancery Court's grant of summary judgment is reversed and this case is dismissed without prejudice | |
| Party Name: | Attorney Name: | |||
| Appellant: | KIMBERLY CRUM CREEL |
STEPHEN W. MULLINS
BRANDON C. JONES |
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| Appellee: | BRIDGESTONE/FIRESTONE NORTH AMERICAN TIRE, LLC, AND FORD MOTOR COMPANY | DAVID L. AYERS JAMES J. CRONGEYER, JR. GRAHAM P. CARNER TIFFANEE WADE-HENDERSON WALKER W. JONES, III BARRY W. FORD JOAN LEIGH LUCAS |
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Synopsis provided by:  If you are interested in subscribing to the weekly synopses of all Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals hand downs please contact Tammy Upton in the MLI Press office. |
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| Topic: | Products liability - Transfer of venue - M.R.C.P. 20 - Forum non conveniens |
| Summary of the Facts: | Kimberly Crum Creel, a resident of Louisiana, filed a product liability suit in the Jefferson County Circuit Court against Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone Firestone North America Tire, LLC, for injuries and property damage arising from a rollover accident in Webster Parish, Louisiana. Her claims were originally part of a mass action suit filed in Jefferson County as Cynthia King, et al. v. Ford Motor Co., et al., involving forty-one individual plaintiffs and twenty-seven accidents. After the multi-plaintiff action was filed, Ford and Firestone removed it to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, which then transferred it to the Ford/Firestone Multi District Litigation (MDL) panel in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. After proceeding in the MDL, the action was remanded to the Jefferson County Circuit Court. Ford and Firestone then filed, and the circuit court granted, motions to sever the improperly joined plaintiffs and transfer them to appropriate venues. The plaintiffs filed a motion for a stay of the proceedings, arguing that the court should require Ford and Firestone to waive any statutes of limitations so that non-resident plaintiffs could dismiss their claims and refile claims in appropriate venues. The court denied the motion to stay and transferred Creel’s case, along with several others, to the Rankin County Circuit Court, where both Ford and Firestone maintained agents for service of process. Creel then filed a petition for an interlocutory appeal, which was denied. Ford and Firestone filed a motion for summary judgment, and Creel filed a motion to dismiss the case under the doctrine of forum non conveniens. The circuit court granted Ford and Firestone’s motion, and dismissed Creel’s motion as moot. Creel appeals. |
| Summary of Opinion Analysis: | Creel argues that the Jefferson County Circuit Court erred in transferring her claim to Rankin County. Creel argues that Canadian National/Illinois Cent. R.R. v. Smith, 926 So. 2d 839 (Miss. 2006), which was decided nearly two years after her case was transferred, should be applied retroactively to the Jefferson County Circuit Court’s decision to transfer her case to Rankin County. In that case, the Court held that where plaintiffs are misjoined and severance is required, the trial court should allow a plaintiff whose case is properly before the court (if any), and all properly joined plaintiffs, to proceed in the filed action; allow misjoined plaintiffs who are properly before the trial court to proceed with separate actions in the forum court; and sever and dismiss all misjoined plaintiffs who lack proper venue in the forum court, allowing each severed plaintiff to file a new complaint in an appropriate venue selected by that plaintiff. Although the Jefferson County trial judge was not at fault in his ruling, his order transferring venue was error, and Creel’s claim must therefore be dismissed without prejudice in accordance with Canadian National. Creel argues that both the Jefferson County Circuit Court and the Rankin County Circuit Court should have allowed her to dismiss her claim and refile under the equitable doctrine of forum non conveniens. However, claims of out-of-state plaintiffs with no connections to Mississippi whose claims accrued outside of the state and who do not meet the joinder requirements of Rule 20 must be dismissed without prejudice as a jurisdictional matter. While jurisdiction is the power and authority of the court to act, venue is the place where the power to adjudicate is to be exercised, that is, the place where the suit may or should be heard. Thus, at common law, the plea of forum non conveniens was sustained in cases where the jurisdiction seemed clear but the parties were nonresidents and a given venue would have been inconvenient. Because Mississippi was never a proper jurisdiction for plaintiffs such as Creel and those in Canadian National, the equitable doctrine of forum non conveniens, which presupposes two valid jurisdictions, is inapplicable. |
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