This month we address Langenhorst v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, 219 Ill.2d 430, 848 N.E.2d 927 (2006), in which the Supreme Court of Illinois (the Supreme Court) recently revisited the doctrine of intrastate forum non conveniens. In Langenhorst, plaintiff filed her wrongful death action in St. Clair County, Illinois and defendants filed a motion to transfer the matter to adjoining Clinton County, site of the accident which resulted in the death of plaintiff's husband and also the county of plaintiff's residence. Defendants' motion to transfer was based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens. The trial court denied the motion to transfer because the private and public interest factors to be considered in applying the doctrine of forum non conveniens did not strongly favor transfer. Langenhorst, 219 Ill.2d at 438-439, 848 N.E.2d at 932. The appellate court initially entered an order denying defendant's Supreme Court Rule 306(a)(2) petition for leave to appeal, but the Supreme Court entered a supervisory order directing the appellate court to vacate that denial and reconsider the matter in light of two of the Supreme Court's recent decisions construing the doctrine of intrastate forum non conveniens, First American Bank v. Guerine, 198 Ill.2d 511, 764 N.E.2d 54 (2002) and Dawdy v. Union Pacific R.R. Co., 207 Ill.2d 167, 797 N.E.2d 687 (2003). Having reconsidered, the appellate court affirmed the trial court's denial of the motion to transfer. In affirming the judgment of the appellate court, the Supreme Court noted that, [w]hen adjoining counties are involved, ˜the battle over the forum results in a battle over the minutiae. Langenhorst, 219 Ill.2d at 450, 848 N.E.2d at 939 (quoting Guerine, 198 Ill.2d at 519-520, 764 N.E.2d at 60). A battle over the minutiae it may have been, but Langenhorst was a particularly bitter, hard-fought battle, resulting in a 4-3 split among the Supreme Court Justices and a lengthy opinion in which the majority argued that the dissent's reasoning would result in obliteration of the venue statute, while the dissent responded that the majority's decision significantly obscure[s] our forum non conveniens jurisprudence. Langenhorst, 219 Ill.2d at 453, 454-455, 848 N.E.2d at 941.
