Personal Jurisdiction (PJ) Flashcards
Four Traditional Bases of PJ
Domicile, Tagging, Express Consent (Service to Agent), and Voluntary Appearance (Filing an Answer or Contractual Agreement)
For a fact pattern other than traditional bases, what do you apply?
Shoe Analysis
What are the two types of PJ that require Shoe analysis?
General and Specific
General Jurisdiction: What does that look like for a corporation?
When a defendant is “essentially at home” in the forum. A corporation is at home in their place of:
(1) Incorporation
(2) Principal Place of Business (PPB)
Where is a corporation’s principal place of business?
This will be the “nerve center” where high level officers direct and make controlling decisions of the corporation’s activities.
Does General Jurisdiction require assessing reasonableness/relatedness?
No
If the defendant is not essentially “at home” in the forum, which kind of personal jurisdiction can the court exercise?
Specific Jurisdiction
What are the elements for specific jurisdiction?
(1) Long-Arm Statute
(2) Minimum Contacts
(3) Relatedness
(4) Reasonableness
What are the two types of long-arm statutes?
Copy the Constitution, Grocery List Variety
What questions should you ask yourself when assessing minimum contacts?
(1) Are there sufficient contacts with the forum to warrant PJ?
(2) Has the defendant purposefully availed/targeted the forum?
What fact patterns give us hints of what minimum contacts might look like?
(1) Direct Contract with the Forum (Burger King)
(2) Stream of Commerce (Nicastro)
(3) Intentional Torts (Calder and Walden)
What should you look for in a fact pattern that involves a contractual agreement with a resident/business in the forum?
Consider who solicited who, where did negotiations take place, contemplated future consequences of enforcing the contract, the contract’s terms.
Does making a contract/agreement with the forum resident automatically establish MC?
No
What’s the difference between a passive and active buyer?
Passive Buyer: Merely places an order and accepts the seller’s price.
Active Buyer: Dictates or vigorously negotiates contract terms; or inspects production facilities.
In general, what is stream of commerce?
When a business other than the manufacturer puts a product into the state. There is no direct relationship between the manufacturer in state A and the customer in state C.
Manufacturer → Distributor → Customer
State A State B State C
Describe Stream of Commerce Plain
If the manufacturer reasonably anticipates/knows their product will end up in the forum, that’s enough to satisfy MC.
Just targeting the region is enough.
Describe Stream of Commerce Plus
Placing the product in SoC (without more) is not enough. The defendant must purposefully avail himself to the forum via ads, service channels, modifying the product for sale in a particular forum, or business development in the state.
What will an intentional tort fact pattern look like?
(1) The defendant knew his intentional tortious conduct would cause harm in the specific forum;
(2) They expressly aimed at/targeted the forum, AND
(3) The plaintiff felt the brunt of harm in the forum (focal point).
To establish minimum contacts with the forum, is it enough for the defendant to just have contacts with the plaintiff?
No. The defendant must have contacts with the forum beyond the plaintiff just being there (Walden).
Describe the Relatedness Test
Did the claim “arise from or relate to” the defendant’s contacts with the forum.
What test do we use to figure out the relatedness between a claim and the defendant’s contact with the forum?
“In the Wake of” Test
What is the “in the wake of” test?
“Would we expect the claims/injuries to have happened to the victim in the wake of the defendant’s forum activities?”
“Is there some substantial connection between the defendant’s contacts in the state and the plaintiff’s claim?”
For relatedness, does the defendant’s contact/conduct have to proximately cause the plaintiff’s injury?
No (Ford)
Define Reasonableness
Would asserting PJ offend notions of fair play and substantial justice?
What are the factors for reasonableness?
(1) Defendant’s Burden
(2) Forum State’s Interest
(3) Plaintiff’s Interest in Obtaining Effective/Convenient Relief
(4) Judicial Efficiency (Where is the Evidence)
(5) State’s Shared/Competing Interests
What must a defendant do to escape PJ?
The defendant must make a compelling case for unreasonableness to defeat PJ.
Could a defendant who says that another forum is more reasonable enough escape PJ?
No, they must make a compelling case why litigating in the current forum is constitutionally unreasonable.
What happens if exercising PJ turns out to be super reasonable?
If exercising PJ turns out to be super reasonable, less minimum contacts are needed between the defendant and the forum (Burger King).
