From the Madison County Record
A Mississippi man’s asbestos lawsuit should not be heard in St. Clair County, the Illinois Supreme Court held Friday.
Saying that “factors strongly favor dismissal in favor of a Mississippi forum,” the state high court, in a 5-1 ruling with one justice not participating, reversed the lower courts’ decision that denied Illinois Central Railroad Co.’s forum non conveniens motion.
Walter Fennell sued the railroad company in 2009, claiming he developed respiratory problems after being exposed to asbestos and other toxic substances during his career with Illinois Central. He was one of 85 plaintiffs in a similar suit that was brought in Mississippi and dismissed three years earlier.
In denying Illinois Central’s forum motion, St. Clair County Circuit Judge Lloyd Cueto noted that the location of certain evidence, as well as the area’s interest in asbestos and a relatively open trial docket, made St. Clair County a convenient forum.
“Without belaboring the point, the circuit court failed to recognize several private and public interest factors in its analysis,” Justice Charles Freeman wrote for the court. “Accordingly, we remind our trial courts to include all of the relevant private and public interest factors in their analyses.”
Justices Rita Garman, Lloyd Karmeier, Ann Burke and Mary Jane Theis made up the majority of the court. Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride dissented and Justice Robert Thomas did not participate in the decision.
Pointing to Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, Freeman wrote that some of the private interest factors courts should consider in a forum analysis include the convenience of the parties, ease of access to evidence, availability to secure attendance of witnesses and the possibility of viewing the premises, among others.
Relevant public interest factors, he added, include “administrative difficulties caused when litigation is handled in congested venues instead of being handled in its origin; the unfairness of imposing jury duty on residents of a community with no connection to the litigation; and the interest in having local controversies decided locally.”