In In Re Air Crash Near Peixoto De Azeveda, Brazil , a number of Brazilian citizens filed suit on against Gol Linhas Inteligentes S.A. ("Gol"), owner of an airplane which collided mid-air with an Embraer Legacy Jet, and crashed into the Amazon rainforest.
After the case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Honeywell (a Morristown New Jersey company responsible for Embraer's avionics components), Lepore and Paladino (both residents of New York and pilots of the Embraer Legacy at the time of the collision), ExcelAire (a New York corporation), SIVAM (several joint U.S. corporations responsible for the Amazon region's radar system), and several other defendants, moved to dismiss the case based on an inconvenient forum or "forum non conveniens" grounds.
The EDNY recognized forum selection is not solely based on convenience: plaintiffs will often choose the forum they believe will maximize their recovery while defendants will generally challenge that selection if they believe another forum would minimize their exposure. As a result, while the EDNY felt it needed to give some deference to the Brazilian citizens' choice of forum, it still was compelled to examine whether the various defendants' preferred forum was "available and adequate to adjudicate the parties' dispute," and, sought to balance "the private and public interests implicated in the choice of forum."
The EDNY ultimately decided the Brazilian residents should be given a "reduced deference" since they didn't have "bona fide connections to the U.S.," and significant evidence -- such as live testimony of the pilots, the wreckage and accident site, the physical investigation evidence, such as the avionics equipment, transponder, Flight Data Recorders, Cockpit Voice Recorders -- were all located in Brazil and thus costly to transport to the U.S.
The plaintiffs were also unable to establish that a Brazilian forum would be inadequate or that they would be unable "to obtain basic justice." The EDNY noted that while the Brazilian appellate process was unduly lengthy, that, in and of itself, wasn't an adequate basis to warrant the matter's retention.
Finally, both private and public interests weighed in favor of dismissal because, if the case were litigated in the U.S., the parties wouldn't "have access to unwilling Brazilian entities, witnesses and evidence." Brazil also had a heightened interest in resolving the controversy in its own courts since the crash was the largest aviation accident in that country's history and triggered a number of "governmental inquiries, criminal charges, mass media coverage, and even an air traffic controllers strike."
"The use of cellular cellphones and other electronic devices is now permitted."
To download a copy of the District Court's decision, please use this link: In Re Air Crash Near Peixoto De Azeveda, Brazil