Gardner v. SPX Corporation

2012 UT App 45, 272 P.3d 175, 702 Utah Adv. Rep. 8, 2012 Utah App. LEXIS 45, 2012 WL 503722
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedFebruary 16, 2012
Docket20090768-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2012 UT App 45 (Gardner v. SPX Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gardner v. SPX Corporation, 2012 UT App 45, 272 P.3d 175, 702 Utah Adv. Rep. 8, 2012 Utah App. LEXIS 45, 2012 WL 503722 (Utah Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

VOROS, Associate Presiding Judge:

11 Appellant Ginger Gardner, with her children (collectively, Gardner), challenges the trial court's ruling dismissing her claims against Appellee Schneider Canada for lack of personal jurisdiction. She also challenges a jury instruction on superseding cause with respect to claims against Appellees SPX Corporation and HOJ Engineering & Sales Co. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

1 2 In November 2002, Gardner's husband, Aaron Gardner, was working as a delivery driver for Sysco Intermountain Foods, Inc. While he was working at the loading dock in Syseo's West Jordan facility, a vertical dock leveler unexpectedly fell, killing him. 1

T3 Gardner alleged that a component of the dock leveler, a control box, was defective. The control box was designed by Schneider Canada, a Canadian company. Square D Company, a Delaware corporation whose principal place of business is in Illinois, has an ownership interest in Schneider Canada. However, Square D and Schneider Canada are separate and distinct legal entities. Square D maintains an office in Utah.

{ 4 Schneider Canada designed and manufactured the control boxes in question based on specifications provided by the Canadian division of a company called Serco. Serco is the predecessor-in-interest of SPX. Schneider Canada sold hundreds of control boxes in Canada to a company called Guillevin International, Inc. Guillevin sold the control boxes in Canada to Sereo's Canadian division, which in turn sold the control boxes to its affiliate, SPX, in the United States. Over the course of the business relationship, SPX and/or Serco purchased "hundreds, if not thousands" of control boxes from Schneider Canada or its distributor, Guillevin.

T5 Schneider Canada knew that some of the control boxes it manufactured would be installed in dock levelers destined for the United States market, but it did not know the states in which the dock levelers would be installed. Specifically, no evidence shows that Schneider Canada knew that any of its control boxes would be incorporated into dock levelers used in Utah. Sysco purchased forty-four such dock levelers. HOJ installed the dock leveler containing the control box at the Sysco facility where Gardner's husband was killed.

T 6 Gardner sued SPX, alleging negligence, strict liability, failure to warn, and breach of warranty. She sued HOJ, alleging negligence, failure to warn, and breach of warranty. And she sued Schneider Canada, alleging negligence, strict liability, failure to warn, and breach of warranty.

17 Before trial, Schneider Canada filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Gardner and SPX both opposed the motion. The trial court granted Schneider Canada's motion to dismiss, ruling that (1) Schneider Canada was "not conducting substantial and continuous local activity in the State of Utah sufficient to meet the requirements for general jurisdiction"; (2) *178 Schneider Canada "does not have minimum contacts with Utah such that the maintenance of the suit against it does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice"; (8) Schneider Canada's having manufactured the control box in Canada and sold it to a Canadian distributor for installation in a dock leveler manufactured in Canada "is not activity sufficient to show that Schneider Canada purposefully availed itself of conducting business in the State of Utah"; (4) "[mJere awareness by Schneider Canada that some of its control boxes would be placed in dock levelers sold and used in the United States is not sufficient to confer jurisdiction over Schneider Canada in the State of Utah"; (5) Schneider Canada's having placed the control box into the stream of commerce is not sufficient to confer jurisdiction over Schneider Canada in Utah; and (6) "Schneider Canada's relationship with Square D Company does not establish jurisdiction over Schneider Canada."

T8 The case proceeded to trial against SPX and HOJ. The jury returned a special verdict in which it determined that SPX was not negligent in the design of the control box, that SPX did not manufacture and sell a product containing a design defect that made the product unreasonably dangerous, and that HOJ was not negligent. As instructed on the special verdict form, the jury left undecided questions of proximate cause and allocation of fault.

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

19 Gardner advances two claims of error on appeal. First, she contends that the trial court erred in dismissing her claims against Schneider Canada for lack of personal jurisdiction. "Trial courts 'may determine jurisdiction on affidavits alone, permit discovery, or hold an evidentiary hearing." Phone Directories Co., v. Henderson, 2000 UT 64, ¶ 2, 8 P.3d 256 (quoting Anderson v. American Soc'y of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons, 807 P2d 825, 827 (Utah 1990). Where, as here, the trial court determines personal jurisdiction on documentary evidence alone, we review its ruling for correctness. See id. (citing Arguello v. Industrial Woodworking Machine Co., 888 P.2d 1120, 1121 (Utah 1992)).

110 In addition, Gardner contends that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on superseding cause. Challenges to jury instructions are reviewed for correct, ness. Daniels v. Gamma West Brachytherapy, LLC, 2009 UT 66, ¶ 22, 221 P.3d 256.

ANALYSIS

I. Personal Jurisdiction

T 11 Gardner contends that the trial court erred in dismissing her claims against Schneider Canada for lack of personal jurisdiction. She argues that Schneider Canada knew that the majority of SPX's dock levelers were sold to the U.S. market, and that in fact "there was a regular and anticipated flow of products from the manufacturer (Schneider Canada) to the seller (SPX) to the retail user, (Sysco) in Utah." She also argues that, as "part of a large global conglomerate that consistently markets and sells its products throughout the United States and Utah," Schneider Canada "should have reasonably anticipated being haled into court in Utah." Schneider Canada's response is twofold. First, it argues that the trial court properly dismissed the claims for lack of personal jurisdiction. Second, it argues that Gardner's claims against Schneider Canada were rendered moot by the jury's verdict in favor of SPX and HOJ.

112 "The authority of the state to hale a nonresident into a state court hinges on the ability to establish personal jurisdiction." Pohl, Inc. of Am. v. Webelhuth, 2008 UT 89, ¶ 9, 201 P.3d 944. "There are two categories of personal jurisdiction: specific jurisdiction and general jurisdiction." Id. "General personal jurisdiction permits a court to exercise power over a defendant without regard to the subject of the claim asserted and is dependent on a showing that the defendant conducted substantial and continuous local activity in the forum state." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Gardner does not claim that Schneider Canada is subject to general jurisdiction in Utah.

*179 "18 "[S]pecific personal jurisdiction gives a court power over a defendant only with respect to claims arising out of the particular activities of the defendant in the forum state and only if the defendant has certain minimum local contacts." Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 UT App 45, 272 P.3d 175, 702 Utah Adv. Rep. 8, 2012 Utah App. LEXIS 45, 2012 WL 503722, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gardner-v-spx-corporation-utahctapp-2012.