Law Office of Larry R. Davidson - Transportation Attorney
  • Home
  • Practice Areas
  • Thoughts
  • Rollin-On
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Profile
Logo.Larry Davidson
Rollin'-On

Transportation Law Blog

venue:  where to battle

9/15/2017

 
Every lawsuit needs a home. The filing party, the plaintiff, is necessarily afforded the first choice, given that the plaintiff needs to file the lawsuit somewhere. We may live in an increasingly virtual world but the lawsuit needs to be filed in a brick and mortar building (metaphorically speaking), in a place where humans still roam, although perhaps they will be replaced by robots someday. Yet there is a virtual element to the filing, since the federal courts, and many state courts, now accept only electronic filing. So while the lawsuit needs a physical home, it may not have a physical existence in that home. Perhaps the reader is already confused, and perhaps the writer is as well. Never can tell. For that matter, perhaps the building is already occupied by robots.
So the lawsuit is filed, and the responding party, the defendant, after being “served”, needs to file a response, usually within 20 or 30 days, depending upon the rules of the court where the lawsuit has been filed. The defendant may have other thoughts about the best place for the skirmish, especially if the defendant fears there might be a too much home cooking in the locale selected by the plaintiff.
Since this audience is presumably transportation oriented, we'll take that perspective. Specifically, we'll suppose that this is a loss and damage claim arising out of transportation cargo in interstate commerce. The statute provides the plaintiff, usually the shipper, with some choices. It should first be noted that on interline shipments, the shipper is not required to sort out which carrier caused the damage. The shipper can file against either the origin or destination carrier, subject to the discussion below. The carrier chosen by the shipper can then file what's called a third party complaint against the other carrier, a topic beyond the scope of this article.
If the shipper wishes to sue the delivering carrier, the shipper must file in a state, or federal judicial district, through which the carrier operates.
If the shipper wishes to sue the carrier which it believes is responsible for the damage, such as where there is no interlining and thus no choice of carrier to sue, the shipper needs to file where the damage is alleged to have occurred.
Although, as mentioned above, litigation between two carriers is outside the scope of this article, it should be noted that the statute says that that claim “may” be filed against the carrier alleged to have caused the damage in the district where the damage is alleged to have occurred. In a recent case, where the defendant carrier sued the other carrier by way of a third party complaint as mentioned above, the court held that by using “may” in the statute, the statute allows the court discretion to require the claim to be litigated in a place other than where the damage is alleged to have occurred.
Frequently, there is no written contract between the shipper and the carrier. Where there is such a contract, the contract usually designates a place of filing. In a recent case, where the shipper, in a household goods case, agreed to submit to venue in a specific location, the court held that the language of the contract did not exclude litigation in another court. That gets into the issue of drafting and interpretation of contracts, a whole separate topic.
Although there are always ifs, ands and buts, the foregoing discussion is offered to show some general considerations involved in figuring out where to file the complaint.




Comments are closed.

    Larry R.

    ​Davidson

    Transportation Law Blog

    This is a new blog. For prior articles regarding various transportation law issues, please click here for articles appearing in past issues of Rollin' On.

    Archives

    June 2018
    September 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017

    Categories

    All
    Attorney
    Breach Of Contract
    Cargo
    Cargo Loss
    Carmack Amendment
    Carrier
    Claims Jurisdiction
    Damage Claims
    Damages
    Delivery
    Exempt Transportation
    Federal Court
    Federal Law
    Food Temperature
    Freight
    Indemnification
    Insurance
    Interstate Commerce
    Interstate Transportation
    Law
    Lawsuit
    Legal
    Loss
    Master Vendor Agreement
    Motor Carrier
    Negligence
    New Jersey Federal District Court
    Rejected Products
    Safety Of Food Products
    Shipper
    State Court
    Trader Joes
    Transportation
    Trucking
    Wrongful Rejection

    RSS Feed

    About the Author

    Larry Davidson is a transportation attorney located in Portland, OR.

Home
Practice Areas
Contact
Sitemap
Law Office of Larry R. Davidson - Transportation Attorney at Law
Telephone: 503-229-0199 - Facsimile: 503-229-0644 - larry@rollin-on.com
121 SW Morrison Street; Ste. 1020 - Portland, OR 97204
Copyright 2000-2017 - All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • Practice Areas
  • Thoughts
  • Rollin-On
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Profile