Ex parte PT Solutions Holdings, LLC PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS (In re: Laurie B. White v. PT Solutions Holdings, LLC) (Barbour Circuit Court, CV-15-900087)

The case involved a noncompetition agreement signed by White, which contained a forum selection clause that stated that Georgia would be the forum for all disputes. White filed suit in Barbour County seeking a judgment declaring the noncompetition agreement unenforceable. PT Solutions filed a Motion to Dismiss based on the forum selection clause. The Court denied PT Solutions Motion to Dismiss and PT Solutions filed a writ of mandamus seeking to enforce the forum selection clause.

The Alabama Supreme Court cited United States Supreme Court precedent on the enforceability of outbound forum selection clauses that “outbound forum-selection clauses are prima facie valid and should be enforced unless enforcement is shown by the resisting party to be 'unreasonable' under the circumstances." The Court stated that the standards of “unreasonableness” could be met by showing "(1) that enforcement of the forum selection clause would be unfair on the basis that the contract was affected by fraud, undue influence, or overweening bargaining power or (2) that enforcement would be unreasonable on the basis that the chosen ... forum would be seriously inconvenient for the trial of the action.”

White’s primary contention that the forum selection clause was invalid, was that the clause was contained in a noncompetition agreement that, she stated, violated Alabama public policy. The Court held that even if the noncompetition agreement violated public policy, it would not impact the forum selection clause.  Accordingly, the Court held that “when venue is challenged based on a forum selection clause, as it was in this case, the court evaluates only the validity of the forum-selection clause.”

White’s only argument that the forum selection clause was unenforceable was that the Georgia forum was 155 miles from her residence making travel “unnecessarily and avoidably disruptive and burdensome.” The Court held that distance to travel does not establish that a forum is unreasonable unless it is so far as to be “gravely difficult and inconvenient as to deprive her of her day in court.”  As such, the Court held that travelling from Alabama to Georgia would not deprive White of her day in court and issued a Writ directing the trial court to enforce the forum selection provision.