The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a formal motion was not necessary to invoke forum non conveniens. In Mueller v. Apple Leisure Corp., ____ F. 3d ____ (7th Cir. 2018), 2018 WL 563983, one of the Plaintiff?s suffered food poisoning at Defendants? resort in the Dominican Republic. She and her husband filed suit in Federal District Court in Wisconsin where they lived. Their vacation contract had a forum selection clause requiring litigation to be in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
The Defendants moved to dismiss on the basis of the contract?s forum selection clause. Although the Defendants had not specifically invoked forum non conveniens, the Court evaluated the dismissal motion under that doctrine. On appeal the Plaintiffs challenged only the procedural irregularity and objected that the Judge raised the doctrine of forum non conveniens himself. The Court discussed an applicable Supreme Court case and said:
?Here the judge applied the Supreme Court’s instructions perfectly. Although Apple had not formally moved to dismiss based on forum non conveniens, the dismissal motion plainly invoked the forum-selection clause and asked the court to enforce it. Accordingly, the judge was well within his discretion to treat the motion as, in substance, a forum non conveniens motion.?