Greenberg v. Miami Children's Hosp. Research Inst., Inc.,
No. 00C 6779 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2002)

Parents of children afflicted with Canavan disease, a rare, fatal, genetic disorder that occurs most frequently in Ashkenazi Jewish families, sued a Florida research institution affiliated with a children's hospital in an Illinois federal court. The parents had provided the institution with their own blood and other genetic materials, as well as materials from their children afflicted with the disease, to be used in research on a cure. The institution later filed for a patent on the research which would give it the right to restrict any activity related to the Canavan disease gene, including the free carrier testing being done in other hospitals. The parents sued claiming that they had provided their genetic materials based upon their understanding that the research would remain in the public domain and would not be patented for the purpose of profiting from the disease.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held that the Florida researcher and research institution were not subject to personal jurisdiction in the Illinois court and exercised its discretion "in the interest of justice" to transfer venue of the case to the Southern District of Florida. The court found that the parents' "understanding" with the institution, which was underlying all of their claims, was based upon the parents' past experiences with researchers in the Tay-Sach's disease community and neither that understanding, nor their provision of genetic materials to the institution, was enough to establish diversity jurisdiction against the institution in Illinois.