Dissent - North Sails Group, LLC v. Boards & More GMBH

CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedDecember 21, 2021
DocketSC20338
StatusPublished

This text of Dissent - North Sails Group, LLC v. Boards & More GMBH (Dissent - North Sails Group, LLC v. Boards & More GMBH) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dissent - North Sails Group, LLC v. Boards & More GMBH, (Colo. 2021).

Opinion

*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.

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The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** NORTH SAILS GROUP, LLC v. BOARDS & MORE GMBH—DISSENT

ECKER, J., with whom KAHN, J., joins, dissenting. When sophisticated, longtime contractual partners domiciled in different jurisdictions end their business relationship, no one should be surprised that, in the absence of a forum selection clause, any disputes aris- ing from the breakup can be litigated in the courts of either party’s home state. Where else, after all? The scenario is common and unremarkable—in the rubric of our minimum contacts jurisprudence, the exercise of jurisdiction over the foreign party in the aggrieved party’s home state ‘‘does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S. Ct. 154, 90 L. Ed. 95 (1945) (International Shoe). The United States Supreme Court described the basic rule in these simple terms: ‘‘[W]ith respect to interstate contractual obligations, we have emphasized that parties who reach out beyond one state and create continuing relationships and obligations with citizens of another state are subject to regulation and sanctions in the other [s]tate for the consequences of their activities.’’ (Emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted.) Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 473, 105 S. Ct. 2174, 85 L. Ed. 2d 528 (1985) (Burger King). Although the mere act of contracting with a forum resident, without more, does not automat- ically confer jurisdiction; see id., 478–79; knowingly entering into a long-term contractual relationship with a forum resident makes it eminently fair and foreseeable in the absence of unusual circumstances, and even more so thirty-six years after Burger King, in today’s techno- logically borderless business environment. See, e.g., General Electric Co. v. Deutz AG, 270 F.3d 144, 150 (3d Cir. 2001) (‘‘Courts are not reluctant to find personal jurisdiction in such instances. ‘[M]odern transportation and communications have made it much less burden- some for a party sued to defend himself in a [s]tate where he engages in economic activity . . . .’ ’’), quot- ing Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, supra, 474. Despite this, the majority today holds that Connecti- cut courts have no jurisdiction over an Austrian entity with a very American name, Boards and More GmbH (B&M),1 a global business operation that has been con- tinuously engaged for almost two decades in an active, robust, and financially significant contractual relation- ship with the plaintiff, North Sails Group, LLC (North Sails), the brick and mortar base of operations of which is firmly planted in Milford, Connecticut. I find this result unwarranted on the present record and, there- fore, respectfully dissent. The crux of the disagreement between the majority and this dissent involves the proper application of mini- mum contacts precedent in the particular context of long-term, contractual relationships of the nature at issue in the present case. The two opinions read Burger King—by far and away the closest United States Supreme Court precedent—very differently in critical respects. Ultimately, the majority believes that the prec- edent imposes a more demanding legal standard than does the dissent. It concludes that most, if not all, of B&M’s purported contacts with Connecticut were ‘‘ancillary and incidental’’ for constitutional purposes because, in the majority’s view, B&M’s relationship with Connecticut stemmed largely from the ‘‘fortuitous’’ fact that North Sails ‘‘happens’’ to be a Connecticut resident. Part I B of the majority opinion. By contrast, I am convinced that the legal requirements for personal juris- diction are easily met on the facts of this case due to the nature and extent of the contractual relationship that the defendant deliberately chose to establish and continuously maintain with the plaintiff over the course of eighteen years. For the reasons that follow, I believe it is incorrect to characterize B&M’s prolonged, pur- poseful and commercially meaningful contacts into and out of Connecticut—the home state of its contracting partner—as anything like random, fortuitous, or attenu- ated within the meaning of Burger King and related precedent. The relationship between North Sails and B&M has all of the characteristics of a long-term business venture of considerable importance to both parties. The compa- nies have been engaged since 20002 in a joint commer- cial enterprise that is the very opposite of a one-off, passing, or sporadic business interaction between com- mercial parties crossing paths briefly while transacting a trivial, ancillary, or inconsequential purchase or sale without discernable terrestrial moorings. Indeed, before the recent breakup, B&M itself described its contractual relationship with North Sails as integral to B&M’s inter- national success, boasting on its corporate website that its ‘‘Mistral, Fanatic and North Sails brands have made Boards & More the world leader in the wind surfing market.’’ For its part, North Sails spent the past twenty years operating out of a physical facility right here in Connecticut, administering the contract, promoting and maintaining the integrity of its market leading brand, monitoring compliance, negotiating disputes, and bring- ing into the Connecticut economy revenues of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually as a result of its perfor- mance under the contract. B&M’s contractual connection to Connecticut existed from the outset. Desiring to continue the relationship with North Sails enjoyed by B&M’s predecessor in inter- est, the company’s leadership negotiated the terms of the contract by sending communications to North Sails’ Milford headquarters and mailing the final agreement to Milford for execution by Thomas A. Whidden, North Sails’ president and chief executive officer. B&M knew full well that it was entering into a contractual relation- ship with a Connecticut based business, and it purpose- fully and deliberately directed its activities at and into Connecticut. The property that B&M purchases from North Sails is an incorporeal license to use certain North Sails trademarks (North Marks) that does not require delivery of a physical product from Connecticut to Aus- tria. But, at all times, B&M knew that North Sails pos- sessed an absolute contractual right, on demand, to require shipment of B&M products, documents, and marketing materials into Connecticut for inspection.

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