On Friday, Judge Posner issued an interesting opinion in Chang v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., No. 09-2280 (7th Cir. March 26, 2010). The opinion affirms the dismissal on statute of limitations and forum non conveniens grounds of claims brought against U.S. companies by plaintiffs from Taiwan. Along the way, Judge Posner has some interesting things to say about: (1) California conflicts of law rules, (2) California’s “borrowing” statute, (3) statutes of repose and limitations generally, (4) the discovery rule, (5) fraudulent concealment (“Denial of liability when negotiating a settlement agreement is the norm; it is not evidence of fraudulent concealment of anything”), (6) the difference between the terms “arose” and “accrued,” (7) the difficulties in obtaining evidence in Taiwan for a case pending in the U.S., and (8) the relevance of differences in the foreign forum’s substantive law and statute of limitations to the forum non conveniens analysis. It’s Posner, so you’ll probably find it interesting. We do, but we have to be “speak no evil” on this one, since we represent one of the winning parties. In any event, we wanted our readers to know about it.
