Independent Financial Group, LLC v. Quest Trust Company

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL GROUP, Case No. 3:21-cv-00537-WHO

LLC,

8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO TRANSFER v. Re: Dkt. No.

QUEST TRUST COMPANY,

11 Defendant.

12 Defendant Quest Trust Company (“Quest”) moves to transfer this case to the Southern District of Texas because of forum selection clauses that govern some of the claims asserted against it by plaintiff Independent Financial Group (“IFG”). IFG was assigned claims by the holders of various individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”) that were allegedly used in a Ponzi scheme. The holders of those accounts, the agreements for which included forum selection clauses designating Harris County, Texas as the location to file any lawsuit, sued IFG for its alleged role in the scheme; as part of a settlement, they then assigned IFG their rights. IFG is asserting those claims against Quest along with claims that it was directly harmed by Quest’s conduct. Because most…