Crane Co. v. Federal Hydronics, Inc.

240 F. Supp. 180, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9575
District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania·Decided March 10, 1965·No. Civ. A. No. 64-1142·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

WILLSON, District Judge.

This case is before me on the motion of defendant, Federal Hydronics, Inc., to [181] dismiss the complaint of plaintiff Crane Company. Plaintiff is an Illinois corporation which does business in Pennsylvania. Defendant is a Minnesota corporation not registered to do business in Pennsylvania. Defendant was served by substituted service on the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to Rule 4(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and 15 P.S. § 2852-1011, subd. B of the Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law.

Defendant has moved to dismiss this action for lack of jurisdiction and to quash service of the summons and complaint on the grounds that defendant is neither present nor doing business within the jurisdiction of this Court. Therefore, the issue presented to this Court is whether defendant does business in this state as defined by the Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law, 15 P.S. § 2852-1011, subd. C. Both sides have filed affidavits as to the business activities of defendant. Counsel have been heard at oral argument, and the affidavits and briefs have been duly considered.

In the complaint of Crane Company, it is alleged that on September 6, 1962, it entered into a patent licensing agreement with defendant whereby defendant licensed plaintiff to manufacture and sell certain electric hydronic systems under patent rights owned by defendant. However, a copy of the contract is not attached to the complaint. Plaintiff alleges that under the terms of the license agreement defendant hád the option to purchase from plaintiff any part or all of defendant’s requirements for the systems, and plaintiff was obligated to manufacture systems for defendant with defendant’s label affixed thereto. Plaintiff further alleges that defendant issued its purchase order ordering 6,120 systems from plaintiff. Plaintiff seeks damages for defendant’s refusal to accept delivery of the systems in the sum of $73,667.37.

The affidavit of R. E. Casner filed by plaintiff indicates that negotiations commenced in 1962 between plaintiff and defendant by way of correspondence and face-to-face bargaining sessions. A negotiating session was held in Johnstown on April 17, 1962, and as a result a mutually agreeable contract was prepared by attorneys for the defendant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in August of 1962, and was there executed by defendant. Five copies of the contract were sent to plaintiff’s office in Johnstown where they were signed by R. E. Casner, and two of the executed copies were returned to defendant.

Article VI of the license agreement provides that Crane, as licensee, must pay Aqua-Lectric (defendant’s previous name) royalties of six per cent of the net sales price on each sale of a system or component thereof.

Subsection D of Article VI of the license agreement gives the defendant the right to send its officers or agents to plaintiff’s PHAC Group headquarters in Johnstown twice a year in order to inspect Crane's books and records pertaining to the manufacture, sale and distribution of the system and its components.

Article IV of the license agreement requires defendant to maintain an engineering staff which is to furnish all design engineering and know-how including, “the rendering of all necessary technical advice, assistance and consultation” as might be required by Crane for the manufacture and sale of the system. This article indicates that plaintiff may be required to conform to engineering staff instructions received from defendant in New Jersey and contemplates activity on the part of defendant in Pennsylvania.

The affidavit of R. E. Casner indicates that after the license agreement was executed four additional meetings between Crane employees and defendant’s agents and officers were held at Johns-town. Each of these meetings was attended by Mr. Herald J. Williams, Jr., president of Aqua-Lectric, Inc. The purpose of most of these meetings was to resolve problems relating to the prices, production, packaging, sale and distribution of the systems or the component parts thereof.

[182] Defendant’s position on the instant motion is succinctly stated in its brief and is as follows:

“Other than the said preliminary discussion in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, concerning the proposed patent license agreement and a few discussions in Johnstown subsequent to entering into such an agreement, and pertaining to such subjects as engineering problems, sales and distribution in connection with that agreement, there were no activities by defendant in Pennsylvania. The license agreement itself was drafted in Minnesota and executed by defendant there and forwarded by mail to plaintiff in Johnstown. The purchase order referred to in the complaint was likewise forwarded by defendant to plaintiff in Johns-town. * * * ”
“The affidavit made by Raymond H. Bohr, President of defendant, and filed with defendant’s Motion for Dismissal, sets forth that defendant is not registered to do business in Pennsylvania; that it has no office or place of business here; that the sales of its products are nationwide pursuant to orders received by defendant in New Jersey; and that it has no employees or telephone listings in Pennsylvania. This affidavit also sets forth that defendant receives orders in New Jersey for its products from some purchasers in Pennsylvania and defendant also recognizes three independent manufacturers’ representatives in Pennsylvania who are free to handle other manufacturers’ products and who operate solely on a commission basis without any restrictions imposed by defendant.”

On the other hand plaintiff says, based on both affidavits and the allegations in the complaint that defendant comes within the recently amended statute in Pennsylvania which only requires minimal activity within this state to become subject to service of process. The statute as last amended in 1963 says:

“For the purposes of determining jurisdictions of courts within this Commonwealth, the entry of any corporation into this Commonwealth for the doing of a series of similar acts for the purpose of thereby realizing pecuniary benefit or otherwise accomplishing an object, or doing a single act in this Commonwealth for such purpose, with the intention of thereby initiating a series of such acts, shall constitute ‘doing business.’ ”

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Crane Co. v. Federal Hydronics, Inc., 240 F. Supp. 180, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9575 (W.D. Pa. 1965).

240 F. Supp. 180 (Crane Co. v. Federal Hydronics, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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