Medtronic succeeds in vacating forum non conveniens dismissal

Client(s) Medtronic PLC

Ruling for Jones Day's client, Medtronic Medical CR SRL ("Medtronic"), the First Circuit vacated a district court's dismissal of Medtronic's lawsuit arising from a scheme to defraud the company of millions of dollars in connection with the construction of a new manufacturing facility in Costa Rica.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico had dismissed the action under the doctrine of forum non conveniens, reasoning that the suit would be better litigated in Costa Rica even though all of the defendants were domiciled in Puerto Rico. Medtronic appealed, arguing that the court had misapplied the legal doctrine in numerous respects. The First Circuit called those arguments "persuasive[e]" and expressed "serious concerns" with the district court's analysis. Ultimately, however, the Court of Appeals vacated the dismissal based on the intervening criminal indictment of the two individual defendants, which Jones Day argued had undermined the district court's rationale. The First Circuit panel expressed confidence that this development would "play a substantial role in the district court's reconsideration" of the issue on remand.

Medtronic Medical CR SRL v. Feliciano-Soto, No. 21-1702 (1st Cir.)