The Eighth Circuit recently held that a motion to dismiss based
on forum non conveniens filed 18 months after the
start of litigation was untimely. According to the decision, if the
forum was truly inconvenient, the defendants should have filed a
motion to dismiss earlier than 18 months after the complaint was
filed and before the end of discovery.
The Case
In
Estate of I.E.H., et al. v. CKE Restaurants, Holdings, Inc., et
al., the parents of a six-year-old boy who died after
touching an exposed wire at an Amman, Jordan, Hardee's
restaurant sued Hardee's in the Eastern District of Missouri,
its home district at the time. Namely, of the parties sued, Tourist
Projects and International Restaurants Company, the non-American
Hardee's franchisee and owner of the restaurant located in the
country of Jordan, was not named. Eighteen months after the
lawsuit was initiated and 17 days after the close of discovery, the
defendants moved to dismiss based on the doctrine of fo
