HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) - Families of 29 call-center employees who were killed in a fire in the Philippines must sue the Connecticut company that employed them in their home country, an appeals court ruled, rejecting arguments the case would be dismissed overseas.
The trial judge in Connecticut had the authority to decide between dueling experts on Philippines law to determine the defendant could waive the statute of limitations and accept jurisdiction in a foreign country, the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled in a June 4 opinion by Judge Bethany Alvord.
Family members sued Shelton, Conn.-based Dynata after employees of SSI Philippines were killed in a December 2017 fire in Davao City, Philippines. Christopher Mark Fanning was the chief executive of Dynata and a shareholder of SSI, and the plaintiffs argued Fanning and Dynata bore vicarious liability for the accident.
The defendants moved to dismiss on grounds of forum non conveniens. The plaintiffs opposed the move and included an affidavit from Elizabeth Aguiling Pangalangan, a law professor in the Philippines, who said a judge there would dismiss the case due to the statute of limitations, even though the defendants agreed to waive that defense.
The defendants cited their own expert who said the plaintiff expert misstated the law and a judge couldn’t override the defense’s waiver of the statute of limitations. The plaintiffs moved to strike the defense expert but the trial judge in Connecticut refused, saying a court in the Philippines was better qualified to answer such questions.
The appeals court agreed, ruling the trial judge’s decision that the Philippines was an adequate forum to hear the case was not an abuse of discretion.