Product Liability Jurisdiction: Asahi Metal v. Superior Court & J.M McIntyre v. Nicastro, Slides of Civil procedure

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Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court

(U.S. 1987)

O’Connor (4): no power – need more than mere awareness that products will end up through stream of commerce in the forum state

• Brennan (4): power – awareness is enough
• Stevens (3 – 2 overlap with Brennan): power – even assuming O’Connor’s test

Kennedy’s opinion (4) – no power, using O’Connor’s test

Breyer (concurring) (2) – no power, because no regular sales - but avoiding O’Connor’s/Kennedy’s test (in favor of something like Stevens’s interpretation of O’Connor’s test ?)

Ginsburg (dissenting) (3) – unclear what test should be, but it is satisfied given contacts with the US Docsity.com

Here, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, relying in part on Asahi , held that New Jersey’s courts can exercise jurisdiction over a foreign manufacturer of a product so long as the manufacturer “knows or reasonably should know that its products are distributed through a nationwide distribution system that might lead to those products being sold in any of the fifty states.”

Burnham v. Superior Court (U.S. 1990)

Five theories

- Pennoyer - International Shoe power theory - McGee factors - Reasonably able to anticipate PJ due to actions - Scalia’s theory – OK if OK under Int’l Shoe but also OK if OK under Pennoyer and still used by states today

P (a citizen of Nebraska) sues D (a citizen of New York) for $100,000 damages in Nebraska state court in connection with a brawl that occurred in Illinois. D has never been to the state of Nebraska and owns no property there. D appears to argue that the Nebraska state court lacks personal jurisdiction over her. Under Nebraska state law, however, motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction are not allowed: Anyone appearing before a Nebraska state court, even when arguing lack of personal jurisdiction, submits himself to general personal jurisdiction.

• D Corp (Ore) manufactures thimbles- engaged in a national search to locate a suitable engineer to work at its only manufacturing plant, located Medford, Ore- search involved advertisements in a trade publication with a national circulation
• use of a company that specializes in recruiting highly trained employees- recruitment company located P, who lived in Yreka, California – only 50 miles from Medford, Oregon- a letter sent from the D Corp’s main office in Medford to P’s home in Yreka, the D Corp offered P a job,- P accepted
• P decided to continue living in Yreka and to commute the fifty miles to work.- P got into a serious accident working on a machine at the Oregon factory
• sued D Corp under state-law negligence concerning the design of the machine in the FederalDistrict Court for the Eastern District of California (which includes the town of Yreka)
• D Corp’s other contacts with the state of California are the following:- The D Corp’s thimbles are sold all over the world, including in California, although distribution of the thimbles is through an independent distributing company that takesownership of them at the D Corp plant in Oregon
• The D Corp sells about 100,000 thimbles per year in California (around 33,000 of which aresold in the Eastern District of California)
• The California sales of its thimbles amount to around $10,000 per year and constitutearound 3% of the D Corp’s total yearly production
• D Corp does not advertise its thimbles in California, nor does it own property, maintain anoffice, or have an agent for service of process there. -PJ? Docsity.com

U.S. Const. Amendment V.

No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...

Rule 4. Summons (k) Territorial Limits of Effective Service. (1) In General. Serving a summons or filing a waiver of service establishes personal jurisdiction over a defendant: (A) who is subject to the jurisdiction of a court of general jurisdiction in the state where the district court is located;

(C) when authorized by a federal statute.

(2) Federal Claim Outside State-Court Jurisdiction. For a claim that arises under federal law, serving a summons or filing a waiver of service establishes personal jurisdiction over a defendant if: (A) the defendant is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s courts of general jurisdiction; and (B) exercising jurisdiction is consistent with the United States Constitution and laws.

P (Va.) brings suit in federal court in Virginia against D, a German domiciliary residing in Germany, for a battery that the German committed against him in New York. The German has no other contacts with the United States besides the brief trip to NY during which the alleged battery occurred. Is there PJ?

venue in federal court

• statutory, not a constitutional issue
• about federal districts, not states
• applicable only in federal court system
• rough measure of convenience