Johnson v. Sel-Mor Distributing Co., Inc.

430 N.W.2d 495, 1988 Minn. App. LEXIS 1035, 1988 WL 110120
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedOctober 25, 1988
DocketCX-88-1013
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 430 N.W.2d 495 (Johnson v. Sel-Mor Distributing Co., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Sel-Mor Distributing Co., Inc., 430 N.W.2d 495, 1988 Minn. App. LEXIS 1035, 1988 WL 110120 (Mich. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

*496 OPINION

KALITOWSKI, Judge.

James Johnson appeals from a judgment dismissing his claim against respondent, Badger Business Products, Inc., for lack of personal jurisdiction. Johnson contends respondent has sufficient minimum contacts with Minnesota so that exercise of personal jurisdiction in Minnesota does not violate due process of law. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant, James Johnson, has been employed during the majority of his working life in the field of sales. He was employed by respondent from April 7, 1983, to May 1984 as a general sales manager.

Respondent, Badger Business Products, Inc. (Badger), is a Wisconsin corporation with its principal place of business in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Badger is in the business of distributing Sharp office copier machines and Ricoh office facsimile transmission machines. Badger’s assigned sales territory for both Sharp and Ricoh products is the southern half of Wisconsin. Badger has no employees who either reside in or work in the State of Minnesota. Badger does not have a bank account or any other assets within the State of Minnesota. Badger does not advertise in Minnesota nor in any other way solicit business within or from any customer within Minnesota, nor does Badger’s sales territory extend into Minnesota or into any other neighboring state.

In an affidavit, Badger’s president claims his company’s limited involvement with persons in Minnesota consists solely of several occasions on which, at the direction of Sharp, Badger has transferred to another Sharp dealer, who may happen to be located in Minnesota, a particular style of copier which that dealer has sold but did not have in its current inventory. In addition, occasionally, Badger has arranged with a common carrier in Wisconsin to deliver to a customer’s branch office in Minnesota a copier purchased and sold in Wisconsin to a Wisconsin customer. Also, the president of Badger has attended business-related events in Minnesota on two occasions in the past several years.

The underlying basis of the lawsuit is appellant’s alleged defamation by respondent. Appellant alleges that managing agents and officers of Badger had conversations with prospective employers of appellant and maliciously misrepresented appellant’s achievements as a sales manager thus preventing him from finding suitable employment.

The trial court issued an order granting Badger’s motion for dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction. This order is appeal-able as an order determining the action and preventing entry of an appealable judgment. See Bulau v. Bulau, 208 Minn. 529, 530, 294 N.W. 845, 847 (1940).

ISSUE

Did the trial court err in finding no personal jurisdiction over respondent?

ANALYSIS

A Minnesota court must resolve two issues before it can exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant. It must determine first whether the statutory standard of our long-arm statute is satisfied, and second whether there exists such minimum contacts between the defendant and this state that the exercise of personal jurisdiction would not offend due process. See Sherburne County Social Serv. o.b.o. Pouliot v. Kennedy, 426 N.W.2d 866 (Minn.1988) (citing Ulmer v. O’Malley, 307 N.W.2d 775, 777 (Minn.1981)).

Appellant was precluded from asserting long-arm jurisdiction under the general long-arm statute. Minn.Stat. § 543.19, subd. 1(d)(3) specifically exempts nonresident defendants from long-arm jurisdiction for claims of defamation based on an act committed outside the state causing injury in the state. Thus, appellant’s claim was brought under Minn.Stat. § 303.13 which does not have a similar exemption for defamation actions.

Respondent, in its motion to dismiss, argued that in order to obtain jurisdiction over Badger under Minn.Stat. § 303.13, *497 subd. 1(3) appellant was required to serve the Secretary of State. The trial court relying on two federal cases agreed. See Flanders v. Associated Newspapers, 9 Med.L.Reporter 1669 (D.Minn.1983) (in order to invoke jurisdiction under Minn.Stat. § 303.13 Secretary of State must be served); and Thompson v. Kiekhaefer, 372 F.Supp. 715, 717 n. 1 (D.Minn.1973).

We need not address the trial court’s interpretation of Minn.Stat. § 303.13 because we hold that Badger’s contacts with Minnesota were not sufficient to justify assumption of personal jurisdiction under the constitutional standards of due process of law applied by the United States Supreme Court.

The United States Supreme Court has delineated the applicable constitutional standard of fundamental fairness as follows:

[D]ue process requires only that in order to subject a defendant to a judgment in personam, if he be not present within the territory of the forum, he have certain minimum contacts with it such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.”

International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945) (citation omitted). The critical focus in any jurisdictional analysis is “the relationship among the defendant, the forum and the litigation.” West American Insurance Co. v. Westin, Inc., 337 N.W.2d 676, 679 (Minn.1983) (quoting Rush v. Savchuk, 444 U.S. 320, 327, 100 S.Ct. 571, 577, 62 L.Ed.2d 516 (1980)). This relationship is defined by the defendant’s contacts with the forum state, not with its residents. West American, 337 N.W.2d at 679.

To have minimum contacts, the defendant must have purposefully availed itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the jurisdiction. Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228,1239, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958). The “purposeful availment” requirement assures jurisdiction will result from more than “random,” “fortuitous,” or “attenuated” contacts, or from the “unilateral activity of another party or third person.” Burger King v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 475, 105 S.Ct. 2174, 2183, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985) (citing Helicopteros Nacionales de Columbia, S.A. v. Hall, 466 U.S. 408, 417, 104 S.Ct. 1868, 1873, 80 L.Ed.2d 404 (1984)). The nonresident must be able to reasonably anticipate being haled into the state’s court. World-wide Volkswagon Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 297, 100 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
430 N.W.2d 495, 1988 Minn. App. LEXIS 1035, 1988 WL 110120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-sel-mor-distributing-co-inc-minnctapp-1988.