Federal Circuit Transfers In re Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc.

In an ongoing trend, the Federal Circuit has transferred In re Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. out of the Eastern District of Texas, ruling that the plaintiffs had not satisfied the proper test for venue. This marks the third case that the Federal Circuit has transferred out of the Eastern District of Texas for improper venue. Judge Folsom of the Eastern District of Texas initially denied transfer of venue to the Eastern District of North Carolina on the grounds that plaintiffs had transferred 75,000 pages of electronic documents to the Eastern District of Texas and one of the witnesses lived in Houston. The Federal Circuit reversed, stating that there were many factors involved in the decision about proper venue, and that the lower court had relied too much on the location of the documents. The Federal Circuit stated that the documents were electronic and could easily be sent anywhere. In fact their origin was in California and they were only transferred to gain venue in Texas. Additionally, the Federal Circuit found that the one witness in Texas was outside the jurisdiction of the Eastern District and could not be compelled by the court, whereas there were four non-party witnesses within the subpoena power of the Eastern District of North Carolina. Also, North Carolina had a great interest in the case, as the product at issue was developed and tested in North Carolina and three party witnesses resided in North Carolina. The Federal Circuit stated that there was no local interest to the Eastern District of Texas and that “there [was] a stark contrast in relevance, convenience, and fairness between the two venues.”