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Feltham v. Bell Helicopter Textron3/22/2001
in federal court in Texas. Id. at 1129. The court applied Canadian law to certain issues and Texas law to others. Id. at 1131. We find nothing in this case that is inconsistent with our holding with respect to this issue.
The appellants argue that the site where the product was designed is important and that the site where the components were manufactured is not important. However important each might be, it is ultimately the trial court's discretion to consider the motion concerning forum non conveniens based upon all of the considerations that we have outlined. We hold that in doing so, the trial court did not abuse its discretion. We overrule issue two.
The appellants urge in issue one that the trial court erred in dismissing their claims as to all of the defendants rather than only dismissing as to those who requested dismissal pursuant to the motion. Section 71.051(a) of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code provides that in cases involving a plaintiff who is not a legal resident of the United States, a Texas court, upon motion of a party, may decline to exercise jurisdiction and may stay or dismiss the claim or action in whole or in part on any conditions that may be just. We interpret this provision as authorizing the trial court to dismiss the entire action based upon the motion of a single party. The appellants refer us to the lack of a stipulation by certain of the defendants that they would not assert statute of limitations and would not contest jurisdiction. Following an abatement of this cause, such a stipulation is now in the record. We overrule issue one.
The appellants urge us, in issue three, to reverse and remand to the trial court to determine if a dismissal of their case is in the interest of justice, in light of the settlement of the claims of all intervenors other than Frank Joseph Yurkowski and the dismissal of their appeals. The only supporting authority for their suggestion is that where error of any type is present, we are authorized to remand a case in the interest of justice. They then restate their contention that it was error to grant the motion to dismiss as to the defendants who did not make the motion to do so. As noted in our discussion of the prior issue, we do not hold that the trial court erred in dismissing those parties on the basis of forum non conveniens, even though it was only Bell Helicopter and Textron who made the motion. We overrule issue three.
The appellants insist in issue four that the trial court erred in granting the special appearance of Ronson Corporation because the evidence proved that Ronson Corporation was subject to the jurisdiction of this court under the theories of both specific and general jurisdiction. In view of our determination that the trial court did not err in dismissing all defendants based upon the doctrine of forum non conveniens, we need not decide issue four.
We affirm the trial court's order dismissing the appellants' claims as to all defendants based upon the doctrine of forum non conveniens.
PUBLISH
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