Atlantic Marine Construction Co. v. United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 3, 2013, is a case that only lawyers could love. But the unanimous decision written by Justice Samuel Alito is a decision that lawyers and judges will actually love because it settles real world problems of forum shopping in a clear, fair and sensible manner.
No great questions of constitutional law or rights under a significant federal statute were at issue in Atlantic Marine. The underlying case involves a routine contract dispute between a contractor (Atlantic) and one of its subsidiaries (J-Crew Management, Inc.) over work done on a job for the federal government in Texas. The contract included a forum-selection clause under which the parties agreed to bring all litigation in the federal or state courts in Virginia, which is Atlantic’s home. When a dispute arose, and without contesting the validity of the forum-selection clause, J-Crew filed suit in the federal court in Texas.
