DeCicco v. Dynata, LLC

Citations

• 354 Conn. 51

Syllabus

The plaintiffs brought an action in Connecticut to recover damages from the defendants, D Co., a Connecticut limited liability company, and two of its officers, for, inter alia, the wrongful death of certain individuals who died in a building fire in the Philippines. The trial court granted the defen- dants' motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' action on the ground of forum non conveniens, concluding that the Philippine courts served as an adequate alternative forum for the plaintiffs' action. The trial court rendered judg- ment dismissing the plaintiffs' action but conditioned its dismissal on the plaintiffs being allowed to restore their action in Connecticut if the Philip- pine courts ultimately dismissed the action for lack of jurisdiction. The plaintiffs thereafter appealed to the Appellate Court, which affirmed the trial court's judgment of dismissal. On the granting of certification, the plaintiffs appealed to this court, claiming, inter alia, that the Appellate Court incorrectly concluded that the trial court had applied the correct legal standard in concluding that the Philippines was an adequate alternative forum for the plaintiffs' action. Held: The Appellate Court correctly concluded that the trial court had applied the correct legal standard set forth in Picketts v. International Playtex, Inc. (215 Conn. 490), in determining whether the Philippines was an adequate alternative forum for the plaintiffs' action. Moreover, there was no merit to the plaintiffs' claim that the trial court had dismissed their action solely on the basis of the defendants' consent to submit to the jurisdiction of the Philippine courts, as the trial court prop- erly undertook a meaningful assessment of whether the Philippines was an adequate alternative forum by weighing the parties' competing affidavits submitted in connection with the defendants' motion to dismiss. Furthermore, the trial court properly made its dismissal contingent on the defendants' stipulation that they would ag