Petersen v. Boeing Co.

Boeing Company (defendant) arranged for Robin Petersen (plaintiff) to train employees of Boeing’s Saudi Arabian subsidiary, Boeing International Support Services (BISS). When Petersen arrived in Saudi Arabia, a BISS supervisor had Petersen sign an employment contract. The contract contained a forum-selection clause requiring Petersen to litigate any dispute with BISS in a Saudi Arabian court. The supervisor confiscated Petersen’s passport and later had Petersen detained. Petersen obtained his release after the United States State Department consulate intervened in his case. Petersen returned to America and sued Boeing for the alleged mistreatment he suffered while working for BISS. Boeing invoked BISS’s forum-selection clause and argued that Petersen could sue only in Saudi Arabia. Petersen responded that his BISS supervisor gave him no time to read the contract and forced Petersen into signing it, that Petersen could not afford to travel to Saudi Arabia, and that almost all his witnesses were now in the United States. Furthermore, Petersen produced a State Department affidavit that Petersen could not return legally to Saudi Arabia, that Saudi Arabia would imprison Petersen pending his trial, and that Petersen could not obtain a fair trial from Saudi Arabian courts. Nevertheless, the federal district court upheld the forum-selection clause and dismissed Petersen’s case. Petersen appealed to the Ninth Circuit.