Ex parte DaimlerChrysler Corp.9/17/2004
PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS
DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Rental Car Finance Corporation, Dollar Rent-A-Car, and PRP Enterprises/PRT Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Dollar Rent-A-Car, defendants in four actions arising out of a single motor- vehicle accident, have filed seven petitions for a writ of mandamus challenging the trial court's orders concerning venue for the four actions. This Court consolidated these cases for purposes of writing one opinion. Some, but not all, of the petitions assert that venue is improper in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court. Some, but not all, of the petitions assert that the doctrine of forum non conveniens requires the dismissal of the actions filed in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court. In cases no. 1030573, 1030574, and 1030575, we grant the petitions in part, deny them in part, and issue the writs. In cases no. 1030576, 1030577, and 1030579, we grant the petitions and issue the writs. In case no. 1030589, we deny the petition.
I. Factual Background
Joe Parker, an uncle of Roderick Kelley, rented a 2001 Plymouth Voyager minivan on March 27, 2001, from Dollar Rent-A-Car or PRP Enterprises/PRT Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Dollar Rent-A-Car. Rental Car Finance Corporation was the owner of the minivan. Shortly after midnight on March 29, 2001, six persons--Roderick Kelley, Jesse Kelley, Richard Hannan, Marvin Allen, Bradford Griffin, and Raymon Spates--left the "Kelley residence" in Bessemer traveling to Daytona Beach, Florida, in the minivan. At about 6:38 a.m., Roderick Kelley, who was driving the minivan at that time, lost control of the minivan while driving in rainy conditions on Interstate Highway 75 South in Turner County, Georgia. The minivan crossed the median, entered the northbound lanes of I-75, and was struck broadside by a tractor-trailer rig being driven by Edwin Marion Coggins and owned by Coggins Farms and Produce of Lake Park, Georgia.
Jesse Kelley and Griffin were severely injured. Roderick Kelley, Hannan, Allen, and Spates were killed. Coggins, the driver of the tractor-trailer rig, was not injured. This accident gave rise to four different actions.
II. The Mandamus Petitions
A. Cases No. 1030575 and 1030579 (Personal-Injury Action Filed by Jesse Kelley (CV-03-401))
Jesse Kelley, an injured passenger, filed an action in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court against Roy King, the administrator of the estate of the driver, Roderick Kelley; and Joe Parker, the individual who had rented the minivan. That action was docketed as CV-03-401 ("the Kelley action"). By amendment, Jesse Kelley added, in substitution for fictitiously named defendants, Rental Car Finance Corporation, Dollar Rent-A-Car, and PRP Enterprises/PRT Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Dollar Rent-A-Car (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Dollar"); and DaimlerChrysler Corporation, DaimlerChrysler Motors Corporation, DaimlerChrysler Motor Company, L.L.C., and Chrysler Motor Corporation (hereinafter collectively referred to as "DCC").
Jesse Kelley alleged negligence and wantonness, negligent entrustment, negligent and wanton failure to warn, breach of the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and violations of Alabama's and Georgia's Extended Manufacturer's Liability Doctrines. The complaint alleges that the minivan and its component parts were defective and unreasonably dangerous in that they were designed, manufactured, distributed, and sold by DCC in a defective and unreasonably dangerous condition, and in that the minivan was not crashworthy and was not reasonably suited for its known and foreseeable environment and use because its "Gen-3" se
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