Opinion
Civil No. 01-455-KI
October 31, 2002
Bernard Jolles, Jolles Bernstein P.C., Portland, Oregon, Robert B. Hopkins, Landye Bennett Blumstein LLP, Portland, Oregon, Attorneys for Plaintiff.
Steven O. Rosen, The Rosen Law Firm, Portland, Oregon, Attorney for Defendants.
OPINION AND ORDER
Before the court is Defendants' Motion to Correct Venue (#66). Defendants argue that this case should be transferred to the Medford Division, or alternatively the Eugene Division, within the District of Oregon. Plaintiff maintains that this case was properly filed and should stay within the Portland Division. For the following reasons, I grant defendants' motion.
Plaintiff is a helicopter pilot. He sustained personal injuries after a helicopter manufactured by defendant and sold to plaintiff's employer crashed during a logging operation over Priest Lake, Idaho. Plaintiff has brought an action based on products liability and negligence against the entities that manufactured and sold the helicopter. Many of the allegedly negligent acts or omissions in this case occurred at plaintiff's employer's facility within the Medford Division. Plaintiff has failed to show any such acts or omissions that occurred within the Portland Division. Moreover, many of the key witnesses in this case and plaintiff himself reside in the Medford Division.
Local Rule of Civil Procedure 3.4(a) requires that cases arising in the Medford Division be filed in Medford. Local Rule 3.4(c) provides that when a case is filed in any division other than the one required by Local Rule 3.4(a), the court may reassign the case to the appropriate Division. To the extent that this action arises in Oregon, it arises in the Medford Division. Accordingly, I hereby grant Defendants' Motion to Correct Venue (#66) and transfer this case to Medford.
IT IS SO ORDERED.