The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief in the Texas Supreme Court addressing the proper interpretation of Texas’s forum non conveniens statute. A trial court in Texas refused to dismiss a case involving claims brought by Texas residents on behalf of the estate of a Mississippi man who was killed in Mississippi by an allegedly defective tractor that was purchased in Mississippi. The Chamber urged the Texas Supreme Court to grant a petition for writ of mandamus and direct the trial court to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims. The brief argued that businesses should not be forced to litigate fundamentally foreign disputes in Texas courts based simply on the fortuity of a derivative plaintiff’s residence in Texas.
Allyson N. Ho and Justin R. Chapa of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as co-counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.