Fifth Circuit Goes All En Banc on Venue Transfer

 
Dallas at least beat Marshall last week.  Sorta.

The Fifth Circuit last week held, in a 10-7 en banc decision, that a district judge in Marshall, Texas (within the Eastern District) abused his discretion in refusing to transfer a car wreck case 142 miles to Dallas, Texas (the Northern District).  Lots of stuff happened in Dallas -- including the accident itself -- but the case had no connection to the Eastern District of Texas, the majority noted.  The strong dissent pointed to the extraordinariness of using mandamus to overturn a discretionary refusal to move venue.  In re Volkswagen of Am., Inc., No. 07-40058 (5th Cir. Oct. 10, 2008).

 But it's a long 142 miles.

Comments

[T]

It goes unmentioned in the en banc opinion, but it's important to note the patent angle to this case. The AIPLA pushed this case with amicus briefs, and I hav to imagine that in part, this is a slight rebuke to Judge Ward to tell him to let some of those cases go.

That subtext doesn't justify the outcome of the case one way or the other, but I think it goes a long way to explaining why the stakes seem higher than one products liability case would suggest.

The ironic thing is that it doesn't seem like it will lead to many patent transfers because a non-practicing patentee can just HQ in EDTex. The only cases that seem likely to move out would be the big company vs. big company patent cases (like the recent stent judgment).