Leetsch

Opinion by Judge BEEZER; Concurrence by Judge BERZON

This is an appeal in a civil suit from a final judgment of dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds. We have jurisdiction, and we affirm.

I

Appellant Ingo Leetsch is an attorney admitted to practice in the Federal Republic of Germany. He filed suit in the Central District of California seeking a judgment for attorney fees and costs for services rendered to his former clients. Leetsch rendered professional legal services involving restitution of his former clients’ real properties located in Berlin, Germany.

The named former clients moved to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds. They argue that Germany offered an adequate alternative forum and that the German court was vested with jurisdiction over the parties. The former clients plead that German law governs the calculation of attorney fees due and that Leetsch has already instituted an action in Germany regarding the same or similar subject matter.

Leetsch filed an ex parte application for an order granting leave “to lodge and file a new proposed order with an addendum” requesting that the court impose conditions to secure return jurisdiction over his former…

Concurring:

I join all but part III of the majority’s opinion. And because the appellees’ amenability to service of process in Germany is not disputed, I agree with the majority that Germany is an adequate alternative forum and therefore concur in the judgment.

I cannot join the discussion in Part III because it seems to suggest — albeit in dicta — that even were the issue of appellees’ amenability to process genuinely in dispute, the district court could have dismissed the complaint without imposing conditions to ensure amenability. As I understand the pertinent cases, amenability of the defendants to service of process with regard to the foreign forum is a sine qua non in determining a foreign forum’s adequacy. See Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 506-07 , 67 S.Ct. 839 , 91 L.Ed. 1055 (1947) (“[i]n all cases in which the doctrine of forum non conveniens comes into play, it presupposes at least two forums in which the defendant is amenable to process; the doctrine furnishes criteria for choice between them”), superseded by statute on other grounds, as recognized in American Dredging Co. v. Miller, 510 U.S. 443 , 449 n. 2, 114 S.Ct. 981 , 127 L.Ed.2d 285 (1994); see also…