Franklin v. Geotechnical Services, Inc.

819 S.W.2d 219, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2690, 1991 WL 226464
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 6, 1991
DocketNo. 2-90-142-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 819 S.W.2d 219 (Franklin v. Geotechnical Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Franklin v. Geotechnical Services, Inc., 819 S.W.2d 219, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2690, 1991 WL 226464 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

HILL, Justice.

Hal Franklin appeals from the trial court’s action of sustaining the special appearance and granting a dismissal in favor of Geotechnical Services, Inc., the appellee. In five points of error he contends that there is no evidence, or, alternatively, factually insufficient evidence to support the trial court’s action.

We affirm, because we hold that under the facts of this case the exercise of jurisdiction by the State of Texas would offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.

Franklin is a resident of the State of Texas, while Geotechnical is a nonresident corporation located in Nebraska. Prior to April 28, 1989, Franklin placed an advertisement in a national water-well trade journal for the sale of a drilling rig consisting of a Mahew 1000 and a water tool truck. On or about April 28, 1989, a Geo-technical employee contacted Franklin by telephone from Nebraska to express Geo-technical’s interest in purchasing the drilling rig. The initial contact commenced a series of telephone conversations and items of written correspondence in which Franklin and Geotechnical, through Jeff Anderson and Michael Siedschlag, its senior vice-president, negotiated the terms of the sale of the drilling rig.

Franklin indicated in his letter of April 28 that the drilling rig was in New Jersey, where it had been used in its most recent job. Anderson requested that Franklin send pictures of the rig to Geotechnical via Federal Express. On the same day, Franklin sent the pictures and a letter that described the rig and specified the price as $24,500 F.O.B. S. Jersey. The letterhead indicated that the letter was sent from Fort Worth, Texas.

On or about May 3, 1989, Geotechnical sent a letter indicating acceptance of the sale, although there is some evidence that Geotechnical thought that its contract was with Clearwater Well Drilling in New Jersey, with Franklin acting as its agent.

[221]*221Franklin sent wiring instructions for the purchase money in a letter sent via facsimile transmission on May 9,1989. Siedschlag later told Franklin in a telephone conversation that Geotechnical would not wire funds as payment of the purchase price of the rig until after representatives of Geo-technical had had an opportunity to inspect the rig.

Geotechnical requested that Franklin send copies of Texas vehicle registration receipts and bills of sale regarding the rig. He honored its request by sending the copies along with his May 9 letter. The letter also confirmed the transportation arrangements Franklin had secured to transport the rig from Graham to Omaha.

Geotechnical decided that instead of using the transportation Franklin had arranged with the Texas trucking company, it would send representatives to Texas to transport the rig to Omaha. The representatives arrived on or about May 16, 1989, to inspect the rig. Apparently, at some later time following the inspection, Geotechnical decided against following through with the sale.

Geotechnical’s representatives felt that the rig that was depicted in the photos Franklin sent was not the same rig they inspected in Texas. The representatives did not have the authority to consummate the sale, nor did they do so. Franklin brought this action for Geotechnical’s breach of its contract to purchase the rig.

A Texas court may exercise jurisdiction over a nonresident if the Texas long-arm statutes, TEX.CIV.PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. secs. 17.041-17.069 (Vernon 1986), authorize the exercise of jurisdiction and if the exercise of jurisdiction is consistent with federal and state constitutional guarantees of due process. Schlobohm v. Schapiro, 784 S.W.2d 355, 356 (Tex.1990). We will assume for the purposes of our discussion that Geotechnical was doing business in the State of Texas so that the Texas long-arm statute authorizes the exercise of jurisdiction.

The next issue is whether the exercise of such jurisdiction under the long-arm statute is consistent with due process. In order to comply with federal constitutional requirements, Texas has adopted a formula for jurisdiction over nonresidents in its courts:

(1) The nonresident defendant or foreign corporation must purposefully do some act or consummate some transaction in the forum state;
(2) The cause of action must arise from, or be connected with, such act or transaction. Even if the cause of action does not arise from a specific contact, jurisdiction may be exercised if the defendant’s contacts with Texas are continuing and systematic; and
(3) The assumption of jurisdiction by the forum state must not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice, consideration being given to the quality, nature, and extent of the activity in the forum state, the relative convenience of the parties, the benefits and protection of the laws of the forum state afforded the respective parties, and the basic equities of the situation.

Id. at 358.

Based upon the considerations outlined in paragraph three of the formula, we hold that the assumption of jurisdiction by Texas in this factual situation would offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. Consequently, we further hold that the evidence is both legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s legal conclusions that Geotechnical is not amenable to process issued by the courts of Texas and that the 153rd District Court does not have jurisdiction of the person or property of Geotechnical. See U-Anchor Advertising, Inc. v. Burt, 553 S.W.2d 760, 763 (Tex.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1063, 98 S.Ct. 1235, 55 L.Ed.2d 763 (1978).

Franklin appears to primarily rely on the cases of McGee v. Int’l Life Ins. Co., 355 U.S. 220, 223, 78 S.Ct. 199, 201, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957); Product Promotions v. Cousteau, 495 F.2d 483, 497 (5th Cir.1974); Schlobohm, 784 S.W.2d at 355; O’Brien v. Lanpar Co., 399 S.W.2d 340, 340-41, 343 (Tex.1966); Portland Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Bernstein, 716 S.W.2d 532, 537 (Tex.[222]*222App.—Corpus Christi 1985, writ ref’d n.r.e.), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1016, 106 S.Ct. 1200, 89 L.Ed.2d 313 (1986); Beechem v. Pippin, 686 S.W.2d 356, 361 (Tex.App.—Austin 1985, no writ); Wright Waterproofing Co. v. Applied Polymers, 602 S.W.2d 67, 69-71 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1980, writ ref’d n.r.e.); and N.K. Parrish, Inc. v. Schrimscher, 516 S.W.2d 956, 959 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1974, no writ).

We find that each of these cases involves more contacts with Texas than are present in this case. In Schlobohm,

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