Van Dam v. Smit

It is not disputed that New Hampshire had jurisdiction of this action in contract (Parsons &c. Lumber Co. v. Southwick, 101 N. H. 258) and “ordinarily, jurisdiction of actions in contract will not be declined.” Thistle v. Halstead, 95 N. H. 87, 90. The defendant, however, maintains that the suits should be dismissed under the doctrine of forum non conveniens. The underlying principle of this doctrine is that a court, even though it has jurisdiction, will not exercise it if it is a serious inappropriate forum for the trial of the action so long as an appropriate forum is available to the…