Writ of Mandamus – Forum-selection Clause

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Ryze Claims Solutions, LLC, v. Jane Magnus-Stinson

Case No.: 19-2930

Officials: RIPPLE, BRENNAN, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Writ of Mandamus – Forum-selection Clause

Leslie Billings is a party to an employment agreement with his former employer, RYZE Claim Solutions, LLC (“RYZE”). The employment agreement contains a forum‐selection clause providing that Mr. Billings must bring claims against RYZE in an Indiana court, either in Marion County or Hamilton County, or in a federal court in the Southern District of Indiana. Mr. Billings nevertheless filed this action in a California state court. RYZE removed the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. Relying on Atlantic Marine Construction Co., Inc. v. United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, 571 U.S. 49, 62–63 (2013), the Eastern District of California concluded that Mr. Billings had failed to show why the forum‐selection clause should not control and granted RYZE’s motion to transfer venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) to the Southern District of Indiana.

In due course, the district court in Indiana granted RYZE’s motion for summary judgment on Mr. Billings’s federal claims. The district court then transferred, sua sponte, the case back to the Eastern District of California. It explained that its own docket was congested and that the Eastern District of California had a greater familiarity with California labor law. When the case was docketed once again in the Eastern District of California, RYZE petitioned this court for a writ of mandamus directing the Southern District of Indiana to request that the Eastern District of California transfer the action back to the Southern District of Indiana.

We must give forum‐selection clauses “‘controlling weight in all but the most exceptional cases.’” Atl. Marine, 571 U.S. at 63 (quoting Stewart Org., Inc. v. Ricoh Corp., 487 U.S. 22, 33 (1988) (Kennedy, J., concurring)). Because no such exceptional circumstances exist here, the district court departed from the settled approach for applying the federal transfer statute in cases governed by a forum‐selection clause. Accordingly, we grant the petition and issue the writ of mandamus.

Petition granted

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.