Certain Underwriterts at Lloyd's v. AXA Coirporate Solutions CA2/2

DISCUSSION

The doctrine of forum non conveniens empowers a court to stay or dismiss a “transitory cause of action” that it believes “may be more appropriately and justly tried elsewhere.” (Animal Film, LLC v. D.E.J. Productions, Inc. (2011) 193 Cal.App.4th 466, 471 (Animal Film); Code Civ. Proc., § 410.30, subd. (a) [codifying doctrine; and authorizing stay or dismissal where “the interest[s] of substantial justice” dictate a different forum].) The contours of the doctrine turn on whether there is an applicable contractual provision that requires litigation in a specified forum (a so-called “forum selection clause”). Where no such clause applies, a court may halt a California action only after “weighing . . . a gamut of factors of public and private convenience.” (Cal- State Business Products & Services, Inc. v. Ricoh (1993) 12 Cal.App.4th 1666, 1683.) However, where a forum selection clause mandates litigation in a particular forum, the court should defer to the selected forum as long as doing so would not be “unreasonable”—that is, unless the designated forum “would be unavailable or unable to accomplish substantial justice or that no rational basis exists for the choice of…