Civil Procedure: Venue
Governed by §1391, venue concerns the appropriate district court in which an action may be filed. Venue statutes are generally concerned with convenience, as they seek to channel lawsuits to an appropriately convenient court, given the matters raised and the parties involved in an action. A civil action wherein jurisdiction is not founded solely on diversity of citizenship may be brought only in:
- A judicial district where any defendant resides, if all defendants reside in the same State,
- A judicial district in which a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or a substantial part of property that is the subject of the action is situated, or
- A judicial district in which any defendant may be found, if there is no district in which the action may otherwise be brought.
In general, venue must be proper for each defendant and each claim. The party challenging venue carries the burden of proving that venue is improper. This burden is satisfied where the plaintiff provides a “prima facie showing of proper venue.” Courts will favor the non-moving party, but the need not accept the pleadings as true, and may look to facts outside of the pleadings. If the parties raise a genuine factual issue, the court may stay the Rule 12(b)(3) motion and hold an evidentiary hearing on the disputed facts.” Alternatively, the district court may deny the Rule 12(b)(3) motion while granting leave to refile it if further development of the record eliminates any genuine factual issue.
When more than one proper venue is available under the applicable venue statute, the plaintiff is generally entitled to choose the location in which to file. A plaintiff need not file the action in the forum that is most convenient, only in a forum that is proper. However, the plaintiff’s forum choice is given less weight if the elected forum is not the same as plaintiff’s residence, and is at a high risk of being overridden if not the forum where the operative events occurred. When the plaintiff has chosen to bring suit in a district that is not his ‘home turf’ and which has no connection to any of the acts giving rise to the lawsuit, convenience to the plaintiff is not presumed. The burden rests on the plaintiff to show that venue is proper.
A defendant-corporation resides in “any district in that State within which its contacts would be sufficient to subject it to personal jurisdiction if that district were a separate State.”
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