Berg

This shareholder action raises questions of forum non conveniens. Two issues predominate. The first concerns the effect on forum non conveniens analysis of a clause by which a party submits to jurisdiction in California. The second concerns the circumstances in which a case filed in California by a California resident can properly be stayed pending litigation elsewhere.

The trial court stayed the instant action in favor of litigation of several similar suits pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn (EDNY). The instant action as well as the previous suits pending in the EDNY all arise out of transactions involving the stock of MTC Electronic Technologies Co., Ltd. (MTC), and the activities of MTC in the telecommunications business in China. MTC, numerous MTC directors and officers, and MTC’s underwriters and auditors are defendants in the litigation pending in the EDNY.

MTC is a British Columbia corporation. The clause by which MTC submitted to jurisdiction in California is contained in a prospectus for an MTC stock issue. The clause states simply that MTC has submitted to jurisdiction in Los Angeles. The clause does…