38.

Venue

The general venue provision is found at 28 U.S.C. § 1391. Venue "is primarily a matter of convenience of litigants and witnesses." See Denver & R. G. W. R. Co. v. Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen, 387 U.S. 556, 560 (1967); accord Leroy v. Great Western United Corp., 443 U.S. 173, 180 (1979). The primary purpose of venue statutes is to save defendants from inconveniences to which they might be subjected if they could be compelled to answer in any district, or wherever found. See Neirbo Co. v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 308 U.S. 165, 168 (1939), quoting, General Inv. Co. v. Lake Shore & M.S. Ry. Co., 260 U.S. 261, 275 (1922); Hoiness v. United States, 335 U.S. 297, 302 (1948). Venue is a personal privilege which may be lost, unless venue is seasonably challenged. See Leroy, supra, 443 U.S. at 180; 28 U.S.C. § 1406(b); See Neirbo Co., 308 U.S. at 168; Freeman v. Bee Mach. Co., 319 U.S. 448, 453 (1943). (Addition to venue, just as any other litigant may.) See Addition Industrial Ass'n. v. C.I.R., 323 U.S. 310, 314 (1945); Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. v. Federal Power Com'n, 324 U.S. 635, 639 (1945). Objection to venue will "be deemed to be waived in the absence of specific objection upon this ground before pleading to the merits." United States v. Hvoslef, 237 U.S. 1, 12 (1915); Thames & Mersey Marine Ins. Co. v. United States, 237 U.S. 19, 25 (1915). A specific objection to venue may be made by a separate motion under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b), joined as a separate ground in a motion raising several arguments under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) or, in the absence of a Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) motion, in the answer. [cited in USAM 4-2.200]