Buran Equipment Co. v. Superior Court

Buran Equipment Company, Inc. (Buran) petitions for statutory mandate, Code of Civil Procedure section 400, to review a trial court order changing venue of this action from Santa Clara County to San Francisco County. The trial court based its order on Code of Civil Procedure section 395.2 which permits an unincorporated association to file a statement listing its principal office, under Corporations Code section 24003, and then to assert a right to venue at that location as in the case of a corporation. Here, however, two individual defendants are joined, members of the defendant law firm Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison (Brobeck), who live in Santa Clara County. Where both individuals and associations are defendants, venue is proper at the residence of a properly joined individual defendant; therefore, the trial court order changing the venue to San Francisco, the location of Brobeck’s place of business (according to its statement under Corp. Code, § 24003) cannot stand, and we will issue the writ.

Facts

Buran sued Brobeck and two individual partners, Plumridge and Salmon, in a complaint alleging representation of conflicting interests and breach of fiduciary duty.…