Dillard v. Fed. Corp.

321 F. Supp. 3d 752
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedAugust 1, 2018
DocketCivil No. SA-16-CV-00854-RCL
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 321 F. Supp. 3d 752 (Dillard v. Fed. Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dillard v. Fed. Corp., 321 F. Supp. 3d 752 (W.D. Tex. 2018).

Opinion

HONORABLE ROYCE LAMBERTH, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This case arises from a car accident that occurred in Piedras Negras, Mexico, on May 3, 2013. The accident allegedly occurred when on the tires on the plaintiffs' vehicle failed, causing the vehicle to veer to the side of the road and roll over, injuring the occupants. The plaintiffs sued Federal Corporation ("Federal"), a Taiwanese company that designed and manufactured the failed tire, for negligence and strict products liability. Federal moved to dismiss the case for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Court authorized jurisdictional discovery. At the end of discovery, the parties filed their respective briefs. The Court granted the ripe motion to dismiss, with an opinion to follow. ECF No. 41.

In the course of writing and revising this opinion, however, the Court realized that it erred in granting the motion to dismiss. Therefore, pursuant to Rule 60(b)(1),(6), the Court will vacate its prior order granting the motion to dismiss and dismissing this case and will instead deny the motion and allow this case to move forward. The following opinion explains the Court's reasoning.

Analysis

The issue before the Court is whether the Court has personal jurisdiction over the defendant. "A federal district court sitting in diversity may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant if (1) the long-arm statute of the forum state confers personal jurisdiction over that defendant; and (2) exercise of such jurisdiction by the forum state is consistent with due process under the United States Constitution." Latshaw v. Johnston , 167 F.3d 208, 211 (5th Cir. 1999). Texas's long-arm statute extends to the limits of federal due process. Moncrief Oil Int'l v. OAO Gazprom , 481 F.3d 309, 311 n.1 (5th Cir. 2007) ; Spir Star AG v. Kimich , 310 S.W.3d 868, 872 (Tex. 2010) ("Our long-arm statute reaches as far as the federal constitutional requirement for due process will allow.") (internal citations and quotation marks omitted); TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE §§ 17.041 -045. Therefore, these two requirements merge into one and the Court need only concern itself with the constitutional inquiry in this case.

The primary focus of a constitutional "personal jurisdiction inquiry is the defendant's relationship to the forum state." Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California , --- U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 1773, 1779, 198 L.Ed.2d 395 (2017). The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause permits a state court (or a federal court sitting in diversity) to exercise personal jurisdiction only when a defendant has "certain minimum contacts with [the State] such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice."

*755International Shoe Co. v. Washington , 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945) (quoted in BNSF Ry. Co. v. Tyrrell , --- U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 1549, 1558, 198 L.Ed.2d 36 (2017) ) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Using this analysis, the Supreme Court has "recognized two types of personal jurisdiction: 'general' (sometimes call 'all-purpose') jurisdiction and 'specific' (sometimes called 'case-linked') jurisdiction." Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , 137 S.Ct. at 1779-80. The Court will look at each type of jurisdiction in turn.

I. The Court Lacks General Jurisdiction Over the Defendant.

"A court with general jurisdiction" over a defendant "may hear any claim against that defendant, even if all the incidents underlying the claim occurred in a different State." Id. at 1780 (emphasis in original). A court only has general jurisdiction over a defendant when the defendant's "affiliations with the State are so 'continuous and systematic' as to render [it] essentially at home in the forum State." Daimler AG v. Bauman , 571 U.S. 117, 127, 134 S.Ct. 746, 187 L.Ed.2d 624 (2014) (quoting Goodyear Dunlop Tires Ops., S.A. v. Brown , 564 U.S. 915, 919, 131 S.Ct. 2846, 180 L.Ed.2d 796 (2011) ). A corporate defendant is necessarily "at home" in its place of incorporation and in its principal place of business. BNSF Ry. Co. , 137 S.Ct. at 1558. So general jurisdiction is always available in those forums. It is also possible for general jurisdiction to be available in other forums when a corporate defendant's operations in those forums are "so substantial and of such a nature as to render the corporation at home in that State." Daimler , 571 U.S. at 139 n.19, 134 S.Ct. 746. But the Supreme Court has emphasized that such would be an "exceptional case." Id. And Justice Sotomayor has opined that such cases will almost never exist. BNSF Ry. Co. , 137 S.Ct. at 1560 ("[I]t is virtually inconceivable that such corporations will ever be subject to general jurisdiction in any location other than their principal places of business or of incorporation.") (Sotomayor, J., dissenting). The Court agrees with that assessment.

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321 F. Supp. 3d 752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dillard-v-fed-corp-txwd-2018.