Shell Oil Co. v. Baran

This is an accelerated interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s ruling denying the defendants’ motions to transfer venue in a multi-plaintiff lawsuit. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 15.003(b) (Vernon Supp. 2007). Pursuant to section 15.003(c)(1), we must “determine whether the trial court’s order is proper based on an independent determination from the record and not under either an abuse of discretion or substantial evidence standard.” Id. § 15.003(c)(1). We reverse and remand.

Six plaintiffs, some of whose spouses also joined as plaintiffs, sued CRC Industries, Inc. and forty-two other defendants in Orange County, Texas, for injuries allegedly suffered as a result of exposure to “dangerous levels of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals and substances, including but not limited to benzene, benzene-containing products, naptha, mineral spirits, petroleum distillates, methyl ethyl ketone, solvents, paints, primers, coatings, paint thinners, toluene and xylene. . . .”*fn1 The plaintiffs claimed that they suffer from myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myelogenous leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The plaintiffs named E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, Inc. (“DuPont”) as a defendant, and they pled that DuPont “is a Delaware corporation doing business in the State of Texas with a principal office in Orange County, Texas[.]” Several defendants filed motions to transfer venue, but DuPont did not. Plaintiffs alleged that “ [v]enue is proper because all or a substantial part of the events giving rise to this cause of action occurred in Orange County, Texas and/or one or more defendants maintain a principal office in Texas in Orange County.”