ENROLLED
H. B. 2956
(By Delegates Webster, DeLong, Ellem, Fleischauer, Hamilton,
Hrutkay, M. Poling, Proudfoot, Morgan, Varner and White)
[Passed March 9, 2007; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact §56-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, and to amend said code by adding thereto a
new section, designated §56-1-1a, relating to civil actions
filed in the courts of the state; repealing unconstitutional
venue provision; and the codification of the doctrine of forum
non conveniens.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §56-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section designated as §56-1-1a, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1. VENUE
§ 56-1-1. Venue generally.
(a) Any civil action or other proceeding, except where it is otherwise specially provided, may hereafter be brought in the
circuit court of any county:
(1) Wherein any of the defendants may reside or the cause of
action arose, except that an action of ejectment or unlawful
detainer must be brought in the county wherein the land sought to
be recovered, or some part thereof, is;
(2) If a corporation be a defendant, wherein its principal
office is or wherein its mayor, president or other chief officer
resides; or if its principal office be not in this state, and its
mayor, president or other chief officer do not reside therein,
wherein it does business; or if it be a corporation organized under
the laws of this state which has its principal office located
outside of this state and which has no office or place of business
within the state, the circuit court of the county in which the
plaintiff resides or the circuit court of the county in which the
seat of state government is located shall have jurisdiction of all
actions at law or suits in equity against the corporation, where
the cause of action arose in this state or grew out of the rights
of stockholders with respect to corporate management;
(3) If it be to recover land or subject it to a debt, where
the land or any part may be;
(4) If it be against one or more nonresidents of the state,
where any one of them may be found and served with process or may
have estate or debts due him or them;
(5) If it be to recover a loss under any policy of insurance
upon either property, life or health or against injury to a person, where the property insured was situated either at the date of the
policy or at the time when the right of action accrued or the
person insured had a legal residence at the date of his or her
death or at the time when the right of action accrued;
(6) If it be on behalf of the state in the name of the
attorney general or otherwise, where the seat of government is; or
(7) If a judge of a circuit be interested in a case which, but
for such interest, would be proper for the jurisdiction of his or
her court, the action or suit may be brought in any county in an
adjoining circuit.
(b) Whenever a civil action or proceeding is brought in the
county where the cause of action arose under the provisions of
subsection (a) of this section, if no defendant resides in the
county, a defendant to the action or proceeding may move the court
before which the action is pending for a change of venue to a
county where one or more of the defendants resides and upon a
showing by the moving defendant that the county to which the
proposed change of venue would be made would better afford
convenience to the parties litigant and the witnesses likely to be
called, and if the ends of justice would be better served by the
change of venue, the court may grant the motion.
§56-1-1a. Forum non conveniens.
(a) In any civil action if a court of this state, upon a
timely written motion of a party, finds that in the interest of
justice and for the convenience of the parties a claim or action
would be more properly heard in a forum outside this state, the court shall decline to exercise jurisdiction under the doctrine of
forum non conveniens and shall stay or dismiss the claim or action,
or dismiss any plaintiff:
Provided, That the plaintiff's choice of
a forum is entitled to great deference, but this preference may be
diminished when the plaintiff is a nonresident and the cause of
action did not arise in this state. In determining whether to
grant a motion to stay or dismiss an action, or dismiss any
plaintiff under the doctrine of forum non conveniens, the court
shall consider:
(1) whether an alternate forum exists in which the claim or
action may be tried;
(2) whether maintenance of the claim or action in the courts
of this state would work a substantial injustice to the moving
party;
(3) whether the alternate forum, as a result of the submission
of the parties or otherwise, can exercise jurisdiction over all the
defendants properly joined to the plaintiff's claim;