KCG, INC. v. STEVEN BOLIN and DEBORAH BOLIN

250 So. 3d 130

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: August 8, 2018
• Docket: 18-0927
• Status: Published

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

KCG, INC., as successor to K.C. Wall Products and Ruco Drywall Products, Inc., Appellant,

v.

STEVEN BOLIN and DEBORAH BOLIN, his wife, Appellees.

No. 4D18-927

[August 8, 2018]

Appeal of a non-final order from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Martin Bidwill, Judge; L.T. Case No. 17- 018220(27).

Michael B. Buckley of Buckley Law Group, P.A., St. Petersburg, for appellant.

Rebecca S. Vinocur of Rebecca S. Vinocur, P.A., Coral Gables, for appellees.

PER CURIAM.

We reverse the trial court’s denial of appellant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction on the authority of Southern Wall Products v. Bolin, Case No. 4D18-875 (Fla. 4th DCA July 25, 2018). Both cases arise out of the same underlying case, and the jurisdictional allegations are similar. In this case, Bolin alleged he was exposed to asbestos in materials manufactured by KCG or its predecessor from 1975 to 1977 in Florida. The affidavit filed by a KCG representative stated that it did not have any contacts with Florida prior to 1994. Its predecessor operated a plant in Florida starting in the early 1980’s, after Bolin’s alleged exposure. Bolin offered no evidence of minimum contacts, other than his own use of a product which he identified as distributed or manufactured by KCG in the 1970’s. Just as in Southern Wall Products, Bolin failed to satisfy the constitutional minimum contacts for KCG to be subject to jurisdiction in Florida. We therefore reverse and remand for entry of an order dismissing KCG from the action.

WARNER, LEVINE and FORST, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.