Question

Spotlight on AOL—Common Law. AOL, LLC, mistakenly made public the personal information of 650,000 of its members. The members filed a suit, alleging violations of California law. AOL asked the court to dismiss the suit based on a “forum-selection clause” in its member agreement that designates Virginia courts as the place where member disputes will be tried. Under a decision of the United States Supreme Court, a forum-selection clause is unenforceable “if enforcement would contravene a strong public policy of the forum in which suit is brought.” California courts have declared in other cases that the AOL clause contravenes a strong public policy. If the court applies the doctrine of stare decisis, will it dismiss the suit?

Answer 1

In deciding whether to dismiss the suit the court in California first should look to primary sources of law or sources that establish the law. Two important resources for the court in making the decision are the state and federal constitution which outline the power and limits to those powers of the state and federal constitutions.

Another resource for the court are the statutes passed by the United states Congress and the state legislature. If the court cannot find any source of law that establishes or direct the decision to dismiss the suit , the court should then turn to secondary sources of law for guidance

If the California court turns to prior court opinion, to determine if it should dismiss the suit, it is looking for precedent and this system is called case law. The California court will follow the decision of United Stares supreme court because the doctrine of Stare Decisis and the US Supreme court decision will be binding on California court.

Because of the US Supreme court decision and prior California cases regarding clause of this type, the California Court will not enforce the clause in the contract. Because of the precedent set California court will not and the suit will be heard in California