Galaxy International, Inc. v. White Stores, Inc.

88 F.R.D. 311, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14739
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 14, 1980
DocketCiv. A. No. 80-517
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 88 F.R.D. 311 (Galaxy International, Inc. v. White Stores, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Galaxy International, Inc. v. White Stores, Inc., 88 F.R.D. 311, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14739 (W.D. Pa. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

COHILL, District Judge.

FACTS

Galaxy International, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation having its principal place, qf business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has filed an action in the Western District of Pennsylvania for breach of contract against White Stores, Inc., a Tennessee corporation having its principal place of business in Knoxville, Tennessee. Galaxy International, Inc. (“Galaxy”) engages in the business of buying and selling beef throughout the United States. White Stores, Inc. (“White”), in the ordinary course of its business as a food retailer, enters into contracts to purchase quantities of beef from various sellers throughout the United States. The plaintiff alleges that it sustained damages in the amount of $17,210 as a result of a breach by the defendant of an oral contract for the purchase of beef chunks. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction over Galaxy’s lawsuit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) (1976), which bestows original jurisdiction on the district courts over all civil actions where the amount in controversy exceeds $10,000 and the parties are citizens of different states.

White owns and operates forty-three supermarkets in Tennessee. It does not own any property or operate any stores beyond the borders of that state, and it is not qualified to do business in Pennsylvania as a foreign corporation. In early December, 1979, Guy Roberts (“Roberts”) of Ed Morris Brokerage Co. (“Morris Brokerage”), a meat broker having its principal place of business in Nashville, Tennessee, informed Edward Simpson (“Simpson”), a meat buyer for White, that Morris Brokerage had a seller that would supply three loads of beef chunks to White for $1.42 per pound delivered. Simpson told Roberts that White would purchase the beef chunks at the quoted price.

Morris Brokerage notified the seller, Galaxy, that Roberts had found a buyer for the meat. Galaxy sent a written confirmation of the sale to White, but White never signed the document and it did not communicate directly with Galaxy about this purchase. The three loads of beef, which originated in South America, entered the United States in Florida and were shipped directly to Knoxville. White, after determining upon inspection that the beef was not merchantable because of its very dark color, rejected all of the meat. Galaxy subsequently procured a second buyer, which purchased the beef at $1.29 per pound. The filing of the present action followed.

Procedural Posture

Galaxy filed its complaint against White on April 17, 1980, and an amended complaint on May 1, 1980. White responded on May 27, 1980 by filing a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction or, in the alternative, to transfer for improper venue. Both parties submitted briefs and affidavits in support of their positions on the defendant’s motion, and we heard oral argument on the matter.

Venue

We first will address White’s allegation that proper venue for Galaxy’s action does not lie in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The defendant bases its alie[314]*314gation on 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c) (1976), which provides that “[a] corporation may be sued in any judicial district in which it is incorporated or licensed to do business or is doing business, and such judicial district shall be regarded as the residence of such corporation for venue purposes.” White, reading section 1391(c) as a limitation on venue in lawsuits against corporations, argues that Galaxy may not sue the defendant in this judicial district because the defendant is neither licensed to do business in Pennsylvania nor is it doing business in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Galaxy responds that proper venue does lie in this district because White is doing business in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

We do not find it necessary to resolve the factual question of whether or not White is doing business in this judicial district because we believe that the defendant erred when it read section 1391(c) in isolation. Section 1391(a) of Title 28 of the United States Code provides that “[a] civil action wherein jurisdiction is founded only on diversity of citizenship may ... be brought only in the judicial district where all plaintiffs or all defendants reside, or in which the claim arose.” Subject matter jurisdiction in the present case rests solely on diversity of citizenship, and the plaintiff resides in the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Section 1391(c) does not limit the choice of venue made available by other statutes and does not require a corporation to be sued only in one of the districts in which the corporation is deemed to reside under that provision. In a diversity case against a corporation^] suit still may be brought in the district in which all plaintiffs reside.. . . ” C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, 15 Federal Practice and Procedure § 3811, at 57 (1976) (footnote omitted). See Strick Corp. v. Cravens Homalloy (Sheffield) Ltd., 352 F.Supp. 844, 848 (E.D.Pa. 1972); Campbell v. Triangle Corp., 336 F.Supp. 1002, 1007-08 (E.D.Pa.1972). Therefore, we find that venue does lie in the Western District of Pennsylvania for Galaxy’s lawsuit against White.

In Personam Jurisdiction

The defendant asserts that even if venue is proper in the Western District of Pennsylvania, the plaintiff cannot obtain in personam jurisdiction over the defendant in this district. “There . .. exists an overwhelming consensus that the amenability of a foreign corporation to suit in a federal court in a diversity action is determined in accordance with the law of the state where the court sits, with ‘federal law’ entering the picture only for the purpose of deciding whether a state’s assertion of jurisdiction contravenes a constitutional guarantee.” Arrowsmith v. United Press International, 320 F.2d 219, 223 (2d Cir. 1963) (footnote omitted). See also Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(e). Section 5322 of Title 42 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes controls the exercise of in personam jurisdiction over nonresident corporate defendants by the federal district courts that sit within Pennsylvania. See Sterling Industrial Corp. v. Telephone, Inc., 484 F.Supp. 1294, 1296-97 (W.D.Mich.1980); Donner v. Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., 480 F.Supp. 1229, 1231-32 (E.D.Pa. 1979). This section provides in relevant part that “the jurisdiction of the tribunals of this Commonwealth shall extend to all persons ... to the fullest extent allowed under the Constitution of the United States and may be based on the most minimum contact with this Commonwealth allowed under the Constitution of the United States.” 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 5322(b) (Purdon’s Pamphlet 1980). Thus, the state statute impliedly refers us back to “the evolution of substantive jurisdictional due process as expressed by the United States Supreme Court.” Proctor & Schwartz, Inc. v. Cleveland Lumber Co., 228 Pa.Super. 12, 18, 323 A.2d 11, 14 (1974).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
88 F.R.D. 311, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galaxy-international-inc-v-white-stores-inc-pawd-1980.