In re Union Carbide Corporation Gas Plant Disaster at Bhopal, India in December 1984
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
809 F.2d 195 (1987)
After a Union Carbide (defendant) gas plant disaster in India, staffed entirely by Indian citizens with no American workers or deaths, killed over 2,000 people and injured 200,000 more, thousands of Indian citizens (plaintiffs) sued in consolidated U.S. multidistrict litigation; Union Carbide moved to dismiss for forum non conveniens, and the district court granted dismissal on the condition that Union Carbide consent to enforcement of any Indian judgment in the U.S. and to American-style discovery in the Indian proceeding, with both sides appealing different parts of the order.
When deciding the issue of forum non conveniens in a case in which the plaintiff is not a United States resident, should a United States court apply the same test that would apply if the plaintiff were a U.S. resident?