Connor v. Farmer

80 F.R.D. 472
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedNovember 22, 1978
DocketCiv. A. No. 77-2251
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 80 F.R.D. 472 (Connor v. Farmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Connor v. Farmer, 80 F.R.D. 472 (E.D. La. 1978).

Opinion

CASSIBRY, District Judge:

In this action for damages resulting from the disease silicosis, the plaintiff is suing, among others, the three nonresident defendants Stout, Linen and Dugan, executive officers of one of his employers Todd Shipyards, Inc., for alleged failure to provide him with a safe place to work during his employment with Todd from 1965 to 1968.

The defendants contend that they had no connection with the Todd facility in Louisiana where plaintiff was employed except as representatives of the corporation and that this circumstance makes their activities in connection with the Todd facility insufficient to subject them to personal jurisdiction in this state. They urge that the attempt to assert personal jurisdiction over the nonresident defendant violates their right to due process of law under International Shoe Company v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 164, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); McGee v. International Life Insurance Company, 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957); Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958).

The plaintiff contends that he has carried the burden of demonstrating that the defendants come within sections (b), (c) and (d) of Louisiana’s Long-arm Statute, L.R.S. 13:3201:

A court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident, who acts directly or by an agent, as to a cause of action arising from the nonresident’s
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(b) contracting to supply services or things in this state;
(c) causing injury or damage by an offense or quasi offense committed through an act or omission in this state;
(d) causing injury or damage in this state by an offense or quasi offense committed through an act or omission outside of this state if he regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives substantial revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered, in this state * *

The plaintiff argues that defendants come within section (b) of the statute because they contracted with Todd to supply their services as executive officers within Louisiana, and among the services the defendants agreed to render was the safe operation of all plants for the benefit of Todd’s employees. The weakness of plaintiff’s position as to this section is that he has provided the court only with argument, and has not substantiated his argument [475]*475with the employment contracts so that the court could make a determination as to whether this cause of action arose out of the defendants’ “contracting to supply services * * * in this state”. The burden of proving the issues of jurisdiction under Louisiana law rests upon the plaintiff. Swann v. Performance Contractors, Ltd., 271 So.2d 294 (La.App. 3d Cir. 1973).

Plaintiff urges that the defendant Linen comes within section (c) because his answers to interrogatories reveal that he made several visits to the New Orleans plant during the period of plaintiff’s employment and therefore knew, or should have known, of the hazard to plaintiff’s health. An examination of the answers to interrogatories does not sustain plaintiff’s argument. In response to interrogatories regarding Linen’s personal visits to Todd’s facilities in Louisiana, he answered:

The most recent visit was in March, 1969; during the thirty (30) year period prior to March, 1969, approximately six other business trips were made to the New Orleans Division.

This answer does not establish that the defendant Linen was in Louisiana during the alleged period of plaintiff’s employment —1965 to 1968, and thus plaintiff has failed to fulfill his burden of showing that defendant Linen could have committed an omission in this state within the contemplation of section (c) during the period of plaintiff’s employment with Todd.

To bring the defendants within the personal jurisdiction of this court under section (d), the plaintiff contends that the defendants’ answers to interrogatories reveal that in directing the operation of the Todd plant in Louisiana, they engaged in a “persistent course of conduct” within the state in the contemplation of section (d), and caused injury in this state by omitting outside of this state to provide the plaintiff with a safe place to work.

The answers to interrogatories reveal that only the defendant Stout can be regarded as engaging in a persistent course of conduct in this state. Plaintiff’s interrogatories Nos. 5, 6 and 7 are pertinent to the consideration of this issue:

INTERROGATORY NO. 5
Do you or does someone acting on your behalf maintain regular correspondence by mail, telegraph, telex or other means with the management personnel of your company’s Louisiana facilities? State the frequency of any such communication.
INTERROGATORY NO. 6
Do you or does someone acting on your behalf maintain contact with the management personnel of your company’s Louisiana facilities by telephone?
INTERROGATORY NO. 7
Is there someone on your staff who visits or has visited the Louisiana facilities and subsequently reports or has reported to you? If so, please state:
a. The name and title of this individual;
b. The dates or frequency of his visits;
c. The purpose of his visits; and
d. The nature or subject matter of his reports to you.
The interrogatories were answered by the three defendants as follows:
Stout
ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 5:
Yes. Such contact is regularly maintained by telephone, TWX, mail, or other means, with the General Manager of Todd’s New Orleans Division, several times a week.
ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 6:
Yes. Such contact is maintained with the General Manager of Todd’s New Orleans Division.
ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 7:
No.
Dugan
ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 5:
No. Correspondence is maintained by mail or TWX with the General Manager of Todd’s New Orleans Division, but no regular correspondence is maintained, [476]*476and it is impossible to state the frequency of the irregular correspondence already described.
ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 6:
Yes. Infrequent contact is maintained with the General Manager of Todd’s New Orleans Division.
ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 7:
Yes.
a. Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
80 F.R.D. 472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/connor-v-farmer-laed-1978.