 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Ex parte Haynes downard Andra & Jones7/29/2005
ts the joinder of multiple parties as plaintiffs and defendants, it does not prescribe a venue for the resulting multiparty action. In Ex parte Hanna Steel Corp., supra, we implicitly rejected the argument RockSolid now advances. In Hanna Steel, several residents of the Birmingham Division of Jefferson County sued, in the Bessemer Division, nine companies they claimed had discharged polluting substances into the atmosphere, ultimately damaging the persons and residences of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs argued that "venue is proper in the Bessemer Division because three of the businesses have plants located on property that is in the Bessemer Division ... the alleged wrongful acts of three of the businesses occurred in the Bessemer Division ...." ___ So. 2d at ___. This Court granted the defendants' petition for the writ of mandamus, directing the trial court to transfer the action from the Bessemer Division to the Birmingham Division of the Jefferson Circuit Court, explaining, as we noted earlier, that in Walter Industries the Court had "reiterated the rule expressed in Ex parte Central of Georgia Ry., 243 Ala. 508, 10 So. 2d 746 (1942), that the jurisdiction granted to the Bessemer Division is limited to those cases arising in that division." ___ So. 2d at ___. If the court in Hanna Steel did not permit venue to proceed in the Bessemer Division, when the wrongful conduct of three of the nine defendants joined in one case under Rule 20 occurred in the Bessemer Division, it likewise cannot do so as to Haynes Downard in this case simply because the wrongful conduct of some of Haynes Downard's co-defendants is alleged to have occurred in the Bessemer Division.
RockSolid argues that § 6-3-7(d), Ala. Code 1975, should be read "as requiring that the general venue laws be applied to the Bessemer Division as though it was a separate County." (RockSolid's brief, p. 12.) This same argument was presented to the Court in Hanna Steel, supra, and we rejected it on the basis that "to reach such a result, we would have to overrule our recent decision in Walter Industries, decided after the enactment of § 6-3-7(d) and citing with approval the construction of the Bessemer Act in Central of Georgia Railway. However, despite their extensive criticism of Walter Industries, the residents never ask us to overrule Walter Industries or Central of Georgia Railway." ___ So. 2d at ___. Accordingly, on the authority of Walter Industries and Central of Georgia Railway, we declined to entertain the argument concerning § 6-3-7(d) that the plaintiffs in Hanna Steel advanced. RockSolid, however, unlike the plaintiffs in Hanna Steel, specifically argues that this Court in implementing § 6-3-7(d) should overrule its holdings in Central of Georgia Railway and Walter Industries. (RockSolid's brief, p. 12.)
Section 6-3-7(d) is a feature of the complete revision of § 6-3-7 undertaken by the Alabama Legislature in 1999. The new version of § 6-3-7 as thus rewritten reads as follows:
"(a) All civil actions against corporations may be brought in any of the following counties:
"(1) In the county in which a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or a substantial part of real property that is the subject of the action is situated; or
"(2) In the county of the corporation's principal office in this state; or
"(3) In the county in which the plaintiff resided, or if the plaintiff is an entity other than an individual, where the plaintiff had its principal office in this state, at the time of the accrual of the cause of action, if such corporation does busi
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Alabama Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|