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Ex parte Hanna Steel Corp.11/12/2004
PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS
Hanna Steel Corporation; Allied Signal, Inc.; Bailey PVS Oxides; Certainteed Corporation; Fritz Enterprises, Inc.; Honeywell International, Inc.; United States Steel Corporation; Vulcan Materials Company; and W.J. Bullock, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "the businesses"), defendants in an environmental-trespass action filed in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court, petition for a writ of mandamus challenging the trial court's order denying their motion for a change of venue. The petition asserts that venue in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court is improper. We grant the petition and issue the writ.
I. Factual Background and Procedural History
Several residents of the community of Wylam filed an environmental- trespass action in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court. In their complaint, the residents state that their residences are located in the Birmingham Division of Jefferson County and allege that the businesses "discharged particulates or gases into the atmosphere," which, they say, "traveled through the atmosphere and onto the [residents'] person and/or the [residents'] property." The complaint also states that some of the businesses conduct their business activities in the Bessemer Division of Jefferson County.
The businesses filed motions alleging improper venue in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court and requesting that the trial court transfer the case to the Birmingham Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court. They argued that all of the residents' claims arose from wrongful acts the residents allege occurred to or on their property, which is located in the Birmingham Division. The residents responded, arguing that venue is proper in the Bessemer Division because three of the businesses have plants located on property that is in the Bessemer Division and one business's principal place of business is in the Bessemer Division. They further argued that because the alleged wrongful acts of three of the businesses occurred in the Bessemer Division, venue is proper there. The trial court denied the motions in an order stating, in pertinent part:
"This Court is well aware of the Supreme Court of Alabama's construction of 1919 Ala. Acts No. 213, as amended (hereinafter the Bessemer Act), recently re-affirmed in Ex parte Walter Indus. Inc., [879 So. 2d 547 (Ala. 2003)]. However, 'legislative enactments are the primary guideposts for the venue of actions.' Ex parte Lamb, 400 So. 2d 386, 387 (Ala. 1981). This Court believes that the established interpretation of the Bessemer Act stands in direct conflict with Ala. Code § 6-3-7(d) and that the Alabama Legislature intended for that subsection to abrogate the Bessemer Act so far as it governed the venue of this Court.
"'Notwithstanding Section 6-3-10, or any local laws relating to venue, in any county having two courthouses, the divisions shall be treated as two separate judicial districts for purposes of venue and for purposes of any change or transfer of venue, unless the jury venire is drawn from throughout the entire county.'
"Ala. Code § 6-3-7(d). The legislature was clearly aware that [it was] changing the existing law and with the phrase 'Notwithstanding Section 6-3-10, or any local laws relating to venue,' the legislature announced its intention for this subdivision to supersede the Bessemer Act and § 6-3-10 in as much as they conflicted.
"This Court finds that the purpose behind the enactment of Ala. Code § 6-3-7(d) was to clear up the confusion over the venue of actions in counties such as Jefferson, Barbour and Coffee where the jury venires are drawn exclusive
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