The Court of Appeals appeared somewhat hesitant to reverse a trial court order allowing a venue-anchoring defendant to be dismissed after settling out of a case, while the plaintiff still had claims against other parties at oral argument on Wednesday.

Policy implications were key to the plaintiff’s argument and appeared to elicit Presiding Judge Stephen Dillard’s caution, exemplified by his remark that he’s “not big on” policy arguments when discussing the oral argument in a subsequent hearing.