Van Dusen v. Barrack
Citation and Court
376 U.S. 612 (1964), Supreme Court of the United States
Facts
Plaintiffs sued in Pennsylvania federal court for wrongful death arising from an airline crash near Boston. Defendants moved to transfer venue to the District of Massachusetts under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). The question arose whether the Massachusetts federal court, after transfer, should apply Massachusetts or Pennsylvania choice-of-law rules.
Issue
When a federal civil case is transferred under § 1404(a) at the defendant’s request, which state’s choice-of-law rules govern — the transferor’s or the transferee’s?
Holding
After a § 1404(a) transfer at the defendant’s initiative, the transferee court must apply the choice-of-law rules of the state in which the transferor court sat, not the transferee state’s rules. Transfer should not result in a change in the applicable law.
Rule / Doctrine
A § 1404(a) transfer is merely a change in venue, not a change in the applicable law. The transferee court must apply the substantive law — including choice-of-law rules — of the transferor forum so that the plaintiff is not disadvantaged by the defendant’s choice to seek transfer.
Significance
Van Dusen established a foundational principle of federal civil procedure: transfer does not alter the applicable law, preventing defendants from using transfer as a forum-shopping device to obtain more favorable substantive law. Ferens v. John Deere (1990) extended this rule to plaintiff-initiated transfers.