WILLIAM M. ACKER, JR., District Judge.
Plaintiffs Jennifer Bright ("Bright") and Bright Surgical Solutions, L.L.C., ("Bright Surgical") a company of which Bright is the owner and sole member, bring this action seeking a declaratory judgment that the non-competition clause in their contract with defendant Zimmer Spine, Inc., ("Zimmer") is unenforceable. Before the court is Zimmer's motion to transfer the case to Minnesota. For the reasons that follow, defendant's motion will be granted.
Plaintiffs reside in Alabama and nowhere else. They entered into a contract with Zimmer by which they were to perform certain work in Alabama. When they concluded they were being damaged by a non-competition clause in the contract, they brought suit in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama seeking a declaration that the non-competition clause is void. Zimmer, a Minnesota corporation, removed the case to this court based on 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and the complete
Zimmer's motion is remarkably similar to another motion this court heard nearly 30 years ago. The court then concluded that Alabama law disfavors forum-selection clauses,
On remand, this court undertook to follow this command faithfully. After thorough fact-finding and extensive discussion of the significance of the facts, including the forum-selection clause, the court concluded that "both the private and public interests militate against a transfer," whereupon the court denied the transfer motion a second time. Stewart Org., Inc. v. Ricoh Corp., 696 F.Supp. 583, 591 (N.D.Ala.1988). The Eleventh Circuit again disagreed. The Circuit, relying heavily on a concurring opinion in the Supreme Court opinion, determined that, absent mysteriously un-described "exceptional" circumstances, forum-selection clauses always control the venue. See In re Ricoh Corp., 870 F.2d 570, 574 (11th Cir.1989) (citing Stewart, 487 U.S. at 33, 108 S.Ct. 2239 (Kennedy, J., concurring)). The Circuit thus concluded that this court had abused its discretion when it denied the motion to transfer, and granted a writ of mandamus requiring this court to grant the motion to transfer. See id. From this saga, this judge reluctantly concluded that "[t]he Eleventh Circuit [has] simply nailed the lid too tight" to ever deny a transfer motion based on a forum-selection clause. Stewart v. Dean-Michaels Corp., 716 F.Supp. 1400, 1404 (N.D.Ala.1989) (hereinafter "Dean-Michaels Corp.", to avoid confusion with the other Stewart cases).
These precedents, if taken alone, would convince the court that it has no choice but to grant the instant transfer motion. However, defendant here relies on a new and different authority: the Supreme Court's recent decision in Atlantic Marine Construction Co., Inc. v. U.S. District Court for Western District of Texas, ___ U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 568, 187 L.Ed.2d 487 (2013). In Atlantic Marine, the Court again enforced a forum-selection clause through a § 1404 transfer, and again held that "[o]nly under extraordinary circumstances unrelated to the convenience of the parties should a § 1404(a) motion [based on a forum-selection clause] be denied." Id. at 581. Defendant undoubtedly feels that Atlantic Marine's recentness, unanimity, and enthusiasm in endorsing contracted for expectations combine to remove any question that might linger about the irresistible power of a forum-selection
Having voiced these concerns arising from Atlantic Marine, this court will not pursue the subject so far as to hold that Atlantic Marine has implicitly overruled or narrowed the import of Stewart, especially when Atlantic Marine cites Stewart extensively and with approval. The Eleventh Circuit's Stewart opinions remain on the books, and this court understands well its role in the judicial hierarchy. Or, as this court more bluntly observed in describing its Stewart experience, "[a] `2×4' between the eyes is an attention-getter." Dean-Michaels Corp., 716 F.Supp. at 1403. Because "this court does not believe that the Eleventh Circuit left open any room for arguing the nice distinctions" between Stewart and other forum-selection clause cases, id., the court cannot find that enforcing the clause in this case violates Alabama's public policy against forum-selection against its citizens, Pl.'s Opp'n at 15-16. Neither are plaintiffs saved by their four-page discussion of a decision of an Alabama trial court. See id. at 10-13 (discussing Rep, Inc. v. Stmicroelectronics, Inc., 2009 WL 7215384 (Ala.Cir.Ct., Jan. 14, 2009)). State courts are not governed by § 1404, the federal transfer statute. Rep, Inc. was dealing with an entirely different legal question. Rep, Inc. contains some persuasive argument, but an Alabama trial court has the same authority to overrule the Eleventh Circuit that this court has. None.
For the foregoing reasons, defendant's motion to transfer venue will be granted.