Personal Jurisdiction

California could not exercise specific personal jurisdiction over a Virginia law firm and its lawyers.  The lawyers had done nothing to avail themselves of California's benefits.  They had a website with minimum interactivity not directed to California residents in particular but rather to veterans throughout the country.  The lawyers had Virginia bar licenses, not California ones.  Though plaintiff (their client)… Read More

On a discretionary appeal from a class certification order under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f), the Court of Appeal has jurisdiction to review any issue bound up with the decision to certify the class.  Thus, in this case, on a 23(f) appeal from an order certifying two nationwide TCPA classes, the Court of Appeal had jurisdiction to consider whether the… Read More

California has specific personal jurisdiction over Avon in a suit brought by a Calfiornia resident who used Avon's talc products and claims they were defective, containing asbestos which gave her mesothelioma.  Plaintiff adequately alleged facts showing that Avon had purposefully availed itself of California's benefits and that those contacts were related to her suit by showing that she had purchased… Read More

Though the defendant did not appear and defaulted, it did not thereby waive any objection to personal jurisdiction.  A trial court may and should determine its own subject matter and personal jurisdiction before entering a default judgment to assure that it is not a void decree.  Here, the trial court properly gave plaintiff notice of its doubt that it had… Read More

Defendant sold goods through its Internet website.  It had no physical presence in California but 8 to 10 per cent of its sales were to California residents. That was sufficient availment of the benefits and protections of California law to satisfy due process, even though the defendant did not target California residents any more than residents of other states. Making… Read More

Following Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia v. Hall (1984) 466 U.S. 408, this decision holds that the district court erred in judging specific personal jurisdiction on the particular transaction that gave rise to the lawsuit rather than on the whole business relationship between the parties, of which the particular transaction was a part.  Defendant was a Honduran company that imported into… Read More

The district court correctly dismissed this copyright infringement suit against the Polish owner of a Polish porn website for lack of personal jurisdiction.  To establish specific personal jurisdiction under the Calder "effects" test, the plaintiff must show (1) the defendant purposefully availed himself of the privileges of conducting activities in the forum or purposefully directed his activities to the forum,… Read More

Brembo, an Italian corporation, was not subject to specific jurisdiction in California in a suit by its distributor TAW, which though originally a California entity, had moved its principal place of business to North Carolina before entering into the distributorship agreement that was the subject of this suit.  The agreement authorized TAW to distribute Brembo products throughout the United States,… Read More

California has jurisdiction over the mother, her brother, and her daughters, all of whom now live in other states, in a suit filed by the son challenging actions taken by the others in connection with the family trust.  Mother and trust had deep California roots.  She lived in Santa Monica until 2016 and formed the trust there.  In 2016, the… Read More

Connecticut-resident defendant was not subject to personal jurisdiction in California in this paternity action, because although defendant knew that plaintiff resided in California and would likely have the child here, those contacts of the plaintiff cannot be attributed to the defendant. Read More

By committing an intentional tort in the state, a person purposely directs his actions toward the state, subjecting himself to personal jurisdiction there, unless the state’s exercise of jurisdiction over him does not comport with fair play and substantial justice under the seven-factor Paccar test. Read More

A defendant does not waive an objection to personal jurisdiction by defending on the merits after having litigated the objection to an adverse ruling in the district court. Read More

A Georgia-resident husband who sent a video of a mock suicide to his California-resident wife caused exceptional and specially regulated effects in California sufficient to support specific jurisdiction to enter a Domestic Violence Protection Act injunction against the husband. Read More

Service of process and taking of a deposition in Arizona as part of Nevada litigation were insufficient minimum contacts with Arizona to create personal jurisdiction. Read More

Montana cannot exercise general jurisdiction over a defendant railroad that is incorporated and has a principal place of business in another state, and so cannot adjudicate claims against the railroad arising from transactions or events outside Montana, even though the railroad maintains 2,000 miles of track and has 2,000 employees in Montana.  Read More

Although a subsidiary's contacts cannot by themselves give rise to general personal jurisdiction over the parent company under an agency theory, the subsidiary's contacts might suffice if parent and subsidiary were alter egos; but in this case, plaintiffs did not allege facts supporting an alter ego relationship, so personal jurisdiction did not attach Read More

In a suit by a California resident against a Texas company that refurbished cellphones, the state of California lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendant because, although the Texas company was owned by a California corporation with overlapping executive personnel, there was insufficient evidence that the Texas company was the California parent's agent or that it purposefully directed its injurious activities… Read More

Defendant corporation was subject to specific (though not general) personal jurisdiction in California, since it was not necessary for the plaintiffs to be California residents or to have claims that arise directly out of defendants' California-related activities in order for their claims to “arise out of or be related to” the defendant’s forum-directed activities.  Read More

Defendant’s concurrent filing of an Anti-SLAPP motion with his motion to quash service of summons for lack of personal jurisdiction does not constitute a general appearance waiving the jurisdictional argument.  Read More