J. Baranello & Sons v. Hausmann Industries, Inc.

86 F.R.D. 151, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10438
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMarch 7, 1980
Docket77 C 2294
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 86 F.R.D. 151 (J. Baranello & Sons v. Hausmann Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. Baranello & Sons v. Hausmann Industries, Inc., 86 F.R.D. 151, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10438 (E.D.N.Y. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NEAHER, District Judge.

This action arises out of an alleged contract for the fabrication and delivery of wardrobe units. Plaintiff claims in its complaint that defendant, a New Jersey corporation, submitted a bid to it for the work, which it relied on in submitting its own bid for award of a public works contract by the Facilities Development Corporation of the State of New York. Plaintiff succeeded in obtaining the award of the general contract but found itself in a dispute with defendant [154]*154concerning the nature of their agreement, if any. This action for breach of contract followed and is now before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint on numerous grounds pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), (2), (3), (5) and (6), F.R.Civ.P.

At the threshold, of course, the court must consider defendant’s contention that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over it and thus that the action must be dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b)(2) and (5), F.R.Civ.P.1 Since service on defendant was made at an address in New Jersey, the validity of personal service of the summons and hence in personam jurisdiction must be tested by reference to the law of the State in which the district court sits. Rules 4(d)(7) and (e), F.R.Civ.P. The applicable sections of the New York Civil Practice Laws and Rules (“CPLR”) are 301 and 302. Under § 301, courts sitting in New York possess power to subject foreign parties to personal jurisdiction if those parties are “doing business” in New York. Thus, for causes of action that may or may not be related to business actually conducted in New York, jurisdiction over the person is acquired only if that person is doing business in New York in the traditional sense, that is, “not occasionally or casually, but with a fair measure of permanence and continuity.” Tauza v. Susquehanna Coal Co., 220 N.Y. 259, 267, 115 N.E. 915, 917 (1917). See also Furman v. General Dynamics Corp., 377 F.Supp. 37, 41 (S.D.N.Y. 1974). Plaintiff has the burden of proving defendant’s activities meet the threshold for assertion of in personam jurisdiction over it. Product Promotions, Inc. v. Cousteau, 495 F.2d 483 (5 Cir. 1974); Oswalt Industries, Inc. v. Gilmore, 297 F.Supp. 307 (D.Kan.1969); Boser v. Burdick, 62 A.D.2d 1134, 404 N.Y.S.2d 187, 188 (4th Dept. 1978); Ziperman v. Frontier Hotel of Las Vegas, 50 A.D.2d 581, 374 N.Y.S.2d 697, 700 (2d Dept. 1975).

Plaintiff, in opposition, relies on the following allegations to meet its burden of pleading jurisdiction. It claims that defendant sells up to $250,000 of hospital equipment annually through a “formal distribution” chain consisting of 120 to 150 dealers in New York State. These dealers are alleged to generate approximately 15% of the defendant’s hospital equipment sales, which constitute approximately 75% of defendant’s entire business. They are also alleged to carry defendant’s line, catalogues, floor and display samples and to order from defendant on a continuous basis from a catalogue. Plaintiff further claims defendant employs a commission agent, Sales Direction, Inc., (“Sales Direction”), which works under its sales manager and assists with proposals made to contractors on furniture primarily for governmental facilities. Finally, it is contended that defendant sells hospital equipment directly to governmental agencies in New York on a competitive bid basis and makes deliveries directly to the hospitals. It also delivers its furniture to New York facilities through contractors under State contract directly to facilities in the State.

Viewing the pleadings and affidavits in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, we are constrained to disagree with plaintiff’s contention that these allegations, assumed true for these purposes, support jurisdiction under § 301. See Ghazoul v. International Management Services, Inc., 398 F.Supp. 307 (S.D.N.Y.1975). Turning first to plaintiff’s contention that the presence in New York of authorized dealers who sell [155]*155defendant’s products establish that defendant is doing business in New York, it is clear that the New York cases do not support that proposition. In Delagi v. Volkswagenwerk AG, 29 N.Y.2d 426, 328 N.Y. S.2d 653, 278 N.E.2d 895 (1972), plaintiff sought to obtain personal jurisdiction over a foreign corporation by service of a summons and complaint upon an independently owned wholesale distributor of the defendant’s automobiles. The New York Court of Appeals found that the distributor’s separate corporate identity and absence of any significant relationship to the defendant made it impossible to draw an inference of agency sufficient to confer jurisdiction over the “principal.” Although Delagi involved a purchase by wholesale distributors from an importer of defendant’s goods, its principle has been applied in cases involving direct sales from a manufacturer to a retailer for distribution. See, e. g., Central School Disk No. 2 v. C. R. Evans Corp., 49 Misc.2d 924, 268 N.Y.S.2d 800 (Chemung Cty.S.Ct. 1966). The federal cases are the same. See McShan v. Omega Louis Brandt et Frere, S. A., 536 F.2d 516, 517-18 (2 Cir. 1976) (Delagi “squarely holds that sales, no matter how substantial, of a foreign manufacturer’s product in New York through an independent agency do not make the foreigner amenable to suit in New York, even though the products are advertised in local media.”); Loria & Weinhaus v. H. R. Kaminsky & Sons, 80 F.R.D. 494 (S.D.N.Y.1978).

Frummer v. Hilton Hotels International, 19 N.Y.2d 533, 281 N.Y.S.2d 41, 227 N.E.2d 851 (1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 923, 88 S.Ct. 241,19 L.Ed.2d 266 (1967), relied on by plaintiff, does not require a different result. That case simply held that jurisdiction over a foreign corporation had been properly obtained since it was doing business in the traditional sense under § 301. The close relationship between defendant Hilton’s New York subsidiary, a reservation service, and its parent corporation, and the activities in New York of the service done for the sole benefit of the foreign defendant, established the defendant’s presence in New York for jurisdictional purposes. The facts of the case lend little support to this plaintiff’s contention that New York dealers of defendant’s products constituted a similar presence in New York. See also Taca International Airlines S. A. v. Rolls-Royce of England, Ltd., 15 N.Y.2d 97, 256 N.Y.S.2d 129, 204 N.E.2d 329 (1965); Public Administrator of Co. of N. Y. v. Royal Bank of Canada, 19 N.Y.2d 127, 278 N.Y.S.2d 378, 224 N.E.2d 877 (1967).

Nor are we persuaded by plaintiff’s argument that the activities of the commission agent, Sales Direction, in “following up bid proposals in the furniture line” establish defendant’s presence in New York for jurisdictional purposes. Plaintiff contends that the commission agent’s activities of investigating whether a quote is of interest to the bidder and attempting to obtain the bid satisfy the “solicitation plus” requirement. The record, however, unmistakably reveals that Sales Direction is a wholly independent corporation that operates on commission only terms with various manufacturers and counts defendant among its many clients.

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Bluebook (online)
86 F.R.D. 151, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10438, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-baranello-sons-v-hausmann-industries-inc-nyed-1980.