Harvey Fuel Company, LLC and Harvey Gulf International Marine, LLC v. Weston and Associates, LLC, Sur-Seal Liners, and CST Industries, LLC

Summary

The Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit, granted supervisory writs and denied an exception of improper venue. The court held that CST Industries failed to prove improper venue because it introduced no competent evidence, including the sales agreement containing the forum-selection clause, at the hearing.

Holdings

1. The party urging a declinatory exception of improper venue bears the burden of proving that venue is improper.
2. For purposes of a venue exception, the plaintiff's petition allegations are generally accepted as true unless evidence is introduced at the hearing; documents attached only to memoranda do not constitute evidence and cannot establish improper venue.

Questions Presented

1. Whether CST met its burden of proving that venue in the Seventeenth Judicial District Court was improper.
2. Whether documents attached to memoranda, but not introduced into evidence at the hearing, could establish improper venue.

Disposition

writ_granted