Investors Equity Life holding Co. v. Schmidt CA4/3

— Plaintiff Investors Equity Life Holding Company appeals from the judgment dismissing this case on the ground of forum non conveniens. Plaintiff filed its complaint in 2009, and the trial court originally ordered the action stayed on the ground of forum non conveniens. Plaintiff appealed that order and we affirmed in a published decision. (Investors Equity Life Holding Co. v. Schmidt (2011) 195 Cal.App.4th 1519 [ 126 Cal.Rptr.3d 135 ] (Investors Equity 1).) In our opinion, we first considered whether Hawaii qualified as a suitable alternative forum for adjudicating plaintiff’s claims, affirming the trial court’s assessment that it did. We then rejected plaintiff’s contention that the court had nonetheless abused its discretion in concluding that the balance of public and private factors favored Hawaii as a forum over California. In the course of assessing the latter issue, we also rejected plaintiff’s claim that as a California resident, its choice of forum was entitled to great weight. Somewhat confusingly, we characterized plaintiff’s claim to California residency as both “erroneous” and merely “doubtful.” (Id. at pp. 1534-1535.) •

In 2012, defendants “renewed” their…