Also known as: venues
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The geographic district or county in which a court sits and in which a lawsuit may properly be brought. Venue rules allocate cases among courts of equal competence by requiring a logical connection to the parties or the events giving rise to the dispute. A court lacking proper venue may transfer or dismiss the action.
Vance Vogel filed a contract suit in the Eastern District of State A against a defendant whose principal place of business and all relevant events were located in the Western District. The defendant promptly moved under Rule 12(b)(3) to dismiss the complaint. The court granted the motion because no substantial part of the events occurred in the Eastern District and the defendant did not reside there.
Vortex Energy, a corporation with contacts sufficient for personal jurisdiction in only one of State B's three districts, was sued in a second district where it had no meaningful presence. The plaintiff argued venue was proper because the company conducted some business statewide. The court held that under the statute the corporation resided only in the district where its contacts would support jurisdiction if that district were a separate state.
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Violet Vang petitioned to establish intestacy of her late uncle's estate in County X. The proponent of a purported will objected and demanded proof that venue was proper. The court required Violet to present prima facie evidence that the decedent was domiciled in County X at death before allowing the proceeding to continue.
Vito Villarreal sued in the District of State C, a proper venue, then moved for transfer to the District of State D for convenience. After transfer the defendant argued that State D's choice-of-law rules should apply. The transferee court rejected the argument and applied the choice-of-law rules that the original court would have used.
Virgil Volpe, trustee of a trust whose principal place of administration was County Y, commenced a judicial proceeding to construe the trust instrument in County Z. A beneficiary moved to dismiss for improper venue. The court transferred the case to County Y because that was the county in which the trust's principal place of administration was located.
Vincent Valdez filed suit in an improper district. The defendant moved to dismiss under Rule 41(b) for failure to prosecute after the plaintiff ignored a venue-transfer order. The court dismissed the action but specified that the dismissal was without prejudice because it rested on improper venue rather than on the merits of the claims.
Venue concerns the geographic district within a court system where suit may be brought based on connections to parties or events. Personal jurisdiction concerns the court's power over a particular defendant. A court may have personal jurisdiction yet lack proper venue.
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The defendant may move to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(3). The court may also transfer the case to a proper district in the interest of justice rather than dismiss it outright.
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No. A dismissal based on improper venue does not operate as an adjudication on the merits under Rule 41(b) and therefore does not trigger claim preclusion.
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Venue lies in the county where the trust's principal place of administration is or will be located, or in the county where the decedent's estate is being administered if the trust was created by will and the estate remains open.
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A corporation is deemed to reside in any district within the state where its contacts would be sufficient to subject it to personal jurisdiction if that district were a separate state.
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…the action be filed in an appropriate district court. These two requirements specify a statute of limitations and appropriate venue, and are waivable by the parties. Salfi , 422 U. S., at 763-764. As in Salfi no question as to whether Eldridge satisfied these requirements was timely raised below, see Fed. Rules Civ.…