The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Mauskopf, J.) granted today the Firm’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s action brought against our clients The Western Union Company and two of its former employees, and Western Union’s former parent and two of its former employees, pursuant to the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Plaintiff alleged that defendants had corruptly instigated criminal proceedings against him in Rome, Italy for extortion, resulting in his arrest, prosecution and incarceration. The Italian criminal proceedings lasted nine years before plaintiff’s conviction was ultimately overturned by the Court of Appeal of Rome. With that, plaintiff brought suit against defendants in the Eastern District of New York alleging malicious prosecution, false arrest and imprisonment, abuse of process, defamation, infliction of emotional distress and that defendants had violated the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. In granting the Firm’s motion and dismissing the action, the Court agreed with the Firm’s arguments that: (i) plaintiff’s choice of forum was entitled only “limited deference” given that he is a foreign citizen who never resided in the United States and his allegations had no connection to New York outside of a tenuous allegation that defendants conspired there; (ii) Italy was a suitable alternative forum for the parties’ dispute, as established in submissions made by the parties’ Italian legal experts; and (iii) the public and private interests weighed “decidedly in favor of dismissal” including because “New York has virtually no interest in the matter” and based on plaintiff’s “own allegations the vast majority of relevant evidence is in Italy.”
A copy of the Court’s decision granting the Firm’s motion can be found here.
