Van Keulen v. Cathay Pacific Airways, Ltd.

When a California plaintiff brings an action against a foreign defendant in a California court, the trial court does not possess the authority to dismiss the action on the basis of forum non conveniens. Instead, if the court determines California to be an inconvenient forum, the California court must stay the California action, in order to retain the ability to protect the California resident pending the resolution of the action in the foreign court. In this case, however, after the California court stayed the action on the basis of forum non conveniens, the California plaintiffs failed to file suit in the proper forum for over four years. The California court then granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the California action for failure to diligently prosecute. The California plaintiffs appeal. We hold that a trial court does have the discretionary authority to dismiss for failure to diligently prosecute an action stayed on forum non conveniens grounds. We also conclude that, in this case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by so doing. We therefore affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Hendrick Van Keulen and Damon Neich-Buckley (appellants) are former…