Carrie Welch v. Nightingale Nurses, LLC

Summary

The Texas Court of Appeals for the Seventh District affirmed dismissal of Carrie Welch’s retaliatory-discharge suit against Nightingale Nurses, LLC based on a contractual forum-selection clause requiring litigation in Palm Beach County, Florida. The court held that Welch failed to establish fraud, overreaching, serious inconvenience, or a strong Texas public policy that would make the clause unenforceable.

Holdings

1. A motion to dismiss is a proper procedural mechanism for enforcing a forum-selection clause when a party files suit in a forum not authorized by the agreement.
2. A contractual forum-selection clause is generally enforceable unless the party opposing enforcement clearly establishes fraud or overreaching, unreasonableness or injustice, contravention of a strong public policy of the forum, or serious inconvenience of the selected forum.
3. The Texas Labor Code's application to a workers' compensation retaliation claim does not, without more, establish a strong Texas public policy requiring the claim to be litigated in Texas or invalidate an otherwise enforceable forum-selection clause.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a motion to dismiss was a proper procedural mechanism for enforcing the contractual forum-selection clause.
2. Whether the forum-selection clause was unenforceable because enforcement would violate Texas public policy or would be unreasonable or unjust given that Welch's injury, workers' compensation claim, witnesses, and asserted retaliation occurred or were based in Texas.
3. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by dismissing Welch's suit without prejudice and requiring her to proceed in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Disposition

affirmed