JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - A law firm sued by its former client in Mississippi over an unsuccessful lawsuit over the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill can’t move the case to its home turf in Florida because the firm didn’t raise the question of improper venue in time, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled.
Miami-based Downs Law Group represented Rachel Gildea Breal in a lawsuit against BP that was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation in 2020, meaning all parties signed the agreement. Breal sued Downs Group; Durkee, Hood & Bolen; and the Cochran Firm-Jackson for breach of contract and other claims a year later.
Breal sued in Hinds County Court in Mississippi and Downs Law removed it to federal court, although six months later it was remanded to Hinds County, where Downs Group moved for summary judgment. At a hearing, the county judge noticed there was a forum-selection clause in Breal’s contract that specified Miami-Dade County in Florida as the place to resolve any disputes. The judge then dismissed the case, finding venue was improper.
Breal appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which reversed the dismissal in a Dec. 14 decision.
Downs Law argued the forum-selection clause stripped Hinds County Court of subject matter jurisdiction, but the judge actually got it right by ruling the question was venue, the Supreme Court said. The party to a lawsuit can’t waive subject-matter jurisdiction but objections to improper venue can be waived in multiple ways, the Supreme Court said. And “the most certain” way is to fail to bring it up in a pretrial motion.
Downs Law argued it didn’t waive the question because when it removed Breal’s complaint to federal court, it said it didn’t waive objections to a number of issues including venue. But in that same filing the firm said the federal court in the Southern District of Mississippi was the proper venue because it included Hinds County.
The firm didn’t raise improper venue in its answers to the complaint or motion to dismiss over the next few months, the Supreme Court said. Even if its boilerplate statement it asserted “all applicable defenses” was enough, Downs Law still waived the issue by actively participating in the case in federal and Hinds County court.
Only 14 months later did venue come up – and it was raised by the trial judge sua sponte, or without being asked by either side. And by then it was too late, the Supreme Court ruled.
“The trial court could not sua sponte point out and enforce a forum-selection clause when the parties themselves failed to do so,” the court concluded.