Coyne v. Grupo Industrial Trieme, S.A. de C.V.

105 F.R.D. 627
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedApril 25, 1985
DocketCiv. A. No. 83-1495
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 105 F.R.D. 627 (Coyne v. Grupo Industrial Trieme, S.A. de C.V.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coyne v. Grupo Industrial Trieme, S.A. de C.V., 105 F.R.D. 627 (D.D.C. 1985).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

GESELL, District Judge.

This case was filed on May 25, 1988 and dismissed without prejudice on June 16, 1983 pursuant to a settlement agreement filed with the stipulation of dismissal. On plaintiffs motion, opposed by the defendants, the Court on March 12, 1985 vacated the dismissal, reinstated the suit, and ordered the defendants to show cause why judgment should not be entered against them for the amount they agreed to pay in the settlement agreement. The case is now before the Court on the parties’ pleadings filed in response to that Order.

Defendants are a Mexican corporation and its board chairman and chief executive officer, Miguel Guajardo, a citizen of Mexico. Plaintiff, a Washington, D.C. financier, sued defendants for allegedly breaching various aspects of an agreement whereby plaintiff loaned money to and invested in defendants’ soft drink bottling plants in Mexico. Plaintiff moved to reinstate this action after an alleged breach of the settlement agreement.1

In opposing judgment on the settlement agreement, defendants primarily urge that service of process on defendants must be quashed because defendant Guajardo was enticed to the District of Columbia for the purpose of serving him. Plaintiff contends there was no fraudulent enticement and that defendants waived any objection to service by entering the settlement agreement.

Defendants properly asserted the defense of insufficiency of service in their first responsive pleading in this case, their response to the Court’s show-cause order of March 12, 1985. See Fed.R.Civ.Pro. 12(b), 12(h)(1). Defendants were not required to assert the defense in the stipulation of dismissal or at any time thereafter until the action was reinstated. Therefore no waiver occurred, and the defense was timely raised.

In their opposing sworn affidavits recounting the service of process in this case, plaintiff and defendant Guajardo continue to dispute each other’s version of the facts.2 However, the Court need not resolve this credibility war by evidentiary hearing because the key facts decisive to the outcome are not in dispute.

Plaintiff does not deny that in the weeks preceding the filing of his suit, he repeatedly urged Guajardo by telephone to come to Washington to settle their dispute. On May 10, 1983, plaintiff instructed his lawyers to begin drafting the papers for the suit. On May 17, 1983, Guajardo called plaintiff to set up a meeting on another matter at plaintiff’s office on May 25. Plaintiff now contends he told Guajardo that he would meet with him at 2 p.m. that date to discuss the other matter. “I also advised him that I had decided to file a lawsuit with respect to the Grupo matter and intended to proceed with that ac-tion____ Mr. Guajardo nonetheless indi[629]*629cated that he wanted to meet and discuss both matters.” P. Aff. at ¶! 8. Service of process was not mentioned.

Guajardo denies any discussion of a lawsuit and swears that he traveled to Washington solely to settle the dispute and to try to negotiate a resale to him of stock Guajardo had agreed to transfer to the plaintiff as part of their earlier agreement. D. Aff. at 1H1 5, 6.

Plaintiffs lawyers filed the lawsuit on May 25. They also arranged to have a process server wait outside plaintiffs offices starting at 1:30 p.m. to serve the papers on plaintiffs instruction. Guajardo arrived at plaintiffs offices for the meeting at around 2 p.m. After some discussion about the other matter, Coyne handed Gua-jardo a copy of the complaint in this case “as a courtesy.” The two spent several hours discussing settlement of the newly filed lawsuit, and Coyne directed his lawyers to draft a settlement agreement.

The lawyers arrived with the agreement in the evening. Guajardo indicated he wanted a notice of dismissal of the lawsuit also prepared. Coyne then sent the process server home at about 8:30 p.m. without serving Guajardo since it appeared the matter was about to be settled. Guajardo, who had traveled alone to the meeting, subsequently indicated he wanted to have his lawyers review the settlement agreement before signing it. Coyne then had his business manager serve Guajardo the papers for both himself and the corporation at about 9 p.m. Settlement was eventually reached about three weeks later on the terms as drafted by Coyne’s lawyers with some modifications made in telephone and mail negotiations.3

The rule that process is invalid where a defendant has been lured into a jurisdiction has been applied for more than 100 years.4 It originated as an equitable. defense, see Jaster v. Currie, 198 U.S. 144, 147, 25 S.Ct. 614, 615, 49 L.Ed. 988 (1905), and is addressed not to the court’s power over the defendant but to the court’s discretion not to exercise that power. See Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 82 comment f (1971); Beale, The Jurisdiction of Courts over Foreigners, 26 Harv.L.Rev. 283, 285 (1913). Immunity from process is granted not to serve the defendant’s convenience but to further the administration of justice, Lamb v. Schmitt, 285 U.S. 222, 225, 52 S.Ct. 317, 318, 76 L.Ed. 720 (1932). Therefore courts will sometimes tolerate artifice used to flush out a defendant who is already in the jurisdiction, see 4 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1076 at 319-20 (1969), but will be much more chary of trickery used to induce a defendant to enter a foreign jurisdiction especially when such trickery impedes the orderly settlement of disputes before they reach the courts.

Accordingly, special considerations for the administration of justice exist where the defendant entered the jurisdiction for settlement talks primarily at the instigation of the plaintiff. In such a case, service can be valid where there was a good-faith effort to settle immediately before service. Commercial Mutual Accident Co. v. Davis, 213 U.S. 245, 257, 29 S.Ct. 445, 448, 53 L.Ed. 782 (1909). In the nature of things, plaintiffs will so assert their good faith. But the courts have been skeptical of such assertions in cases where facts appeared similar to those indicated above. Courts have found that a plaintiff’s real purpose was to serve the defendant with process, and thus have quashed service, where there were prior arrangements to have a process server at the meeting, Sunshine Kitchens, Inc. v. Alanthus Corp., 65 F.R.D. 4, 5 (S.D.Fla.1974),5 where [630]*630the plaintiffs lawyers were preparing the suit at the same time the plaintiff was urging the defendant to come to the jurisdiction, Oliver v. Cruson, 153 F.Supp. 74, 78 (D.Mont.1957), and where the plaintiff failed to clearly warn the defendant before the defendant’s journey that settlement talks would be fruitless or that defendant would be served immediately if such talks failed, E/M Lubricants, Inc. v. Microfral, S.A.R.L., 91 F.R.D. 235, 238 (N.D.Ill.1981); Commercial Bank & Trust Co. v. District Court, 605 P.2d 1323, 1326 (Okla.1980). It does not matter if defendant suggested the actual details of the meeting if it is also clear that plaintiff encouraged defendant to enter the jurisdiction to talk settlement. E/M Lubricants, Inc., 91 F.R.D. at 237.

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Bluebook (online)
105 F.R.D. 627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coyne-v-grupo-industrial-trieme-sa-de-cv-dcd-1985.