Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 14, 1981 Decided December 8, 1981
Full case name	Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno, Personal Representative of the Estates of Fehilly at al.
Citations	454 U.S. 235 (more) 102 S. Ct. 252; 70 L. Ed. 2d 419
Case history
Prior	The District Court granted the defendant a dismissal on the grounds of forum non conveniens. Reyno v. Piper Aircraft Co., 479 F. Supp. 727 (M.D. Pa. 1979). The Court of Appeals overturned this, believing the Scottish courts to be less favorable to the plaintiff than the original forum. Reyno v. Piper Aircraft Co., 630 F.2d 149 (3d Cir. 1980); cert. granted, 450 U.S. 909 (1981).
Subsequent	Rehearing denied, 455 U.S. 928 (1982).
Holding
The Supreme Court held that the Appeals court misinterpreted Gilbert. A change in forum to a less favorable court is permissible. The Appeals court decision was overturned and the District Court's reinstated.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Rehnquist, White
Concurrence	White
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Brennan
Justices O'Connor and Powell took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno, 454 U.S. 235 (1981), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which the court considered the lower court's application of its power of forum non conveniens, a common law legal doctrine whereby courts may refuse to take jurisdiction over matters where there is a more appropriate forum available to the parties.^[1]