Lacy v. Force v. Corp.

403 So. 2d 1050
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 4, 1981
DocketWW-374
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 403 So. 2d 1050 (Lacy v. Force v. Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lacy v. Force v. Corp., 403 So. 2d 1050 (Fla. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

403 So.2d 1050 (1981)

Harlan C. "Bud" LACY, Appellant,
v.
FORCE V CORPORATION d/b/a JBF Printing Company, Appellee.

No. WW-374.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

September 4, 1981.

*1051 Robert C. Elmore of Ferrin C. Kemp Campbell, Sr., Crestview, for appellant.

Mark Evan Frederick, Fort Walton Beach, for appellee.

ERVIN, Judge.

Lacy brings this interlocutory appeal from an order denying his motion to abate, which asserted lack of personal jurisdiction over him. He argues that the court's assumption of jurisdiction, pursuant to the applicable provision of Florida's long-arm statute, Section 48.193(1)(g),[1] is erroneous because (1) he did not breach his contract by failing to perform acts in Florida required of him by his contract, or (2) alternatively, Section 48.193(1)(g) is unconstitutional in its application to the circumstances in this case due to the fact that appellant did not have sufficient minimum contacts with Florida to satisfy due process requirements, as evidenced by Lacy's unrefuted affidavit in support of his motion. We affirm as to both points.

The record on appeal is sparse; the relevant information is limited to the appellee's complaint and the appellant's motion and supporting affidavit, showing that the appellee/plaintiff, Force V Corporation, a printing concern doing business in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, filed a complaint for damages against Lacy, a sole proprietor doing business as Lacy Printing and Machine Company in Dayton, Ohio, against Coastal Graphics, Inc., and against Fred Eggers, an employee of Coastal Graphics,[2] alleging misrepresentation and breach of contract. It was alleged that in February, 1978, the parties entered into a three-way agreement for the sale and purchase of goods to be *1052 delivered at the appellee's place of business in Okaloosa County, Florida. Eggers, working out of Atlanta, was a middleman or broker in the deal, and, while acting as agent for the appellee, he entered into a sales agreement with the appellant whereby the appellee agreed to purchase some printing equipment for the sum of $5,600. The agreement provided that Eggers would hold appellee's check in escrow until the equipment arrived at the appellee's place of business in Ft. Walton Beach and conditioned the sale upon the appellee's approval and satisfaction of the equipment. On February 14, 1978, the appellee sent Eggers a purchase order referring to the subject equipment, and Eggers forwarded the appellee's check to the appellant prior to delivery. The delivery was late, and when the equipment finally arrived, it did not conform to specifications.

The appellant's affidavit stated that his business was not incorporated; that he had no business connections in Florida whatsoever, except an unsolicited phone call by the appellee regarding the machinery in which information concerning specifications and shipping arrangements was sought.

As to Lacy's first point, that the facts alleged do not disclose a contractual breach, the plaintiff is of course required to plead sufficient jurisdictional facts showing that the conduct alleged falls within the applicable provisions of the long-arm statute. Electro Engineering Products Co., Inc. v. Lewis, 352 So.2d 862, 864 (Fla. 1977). Since, for purposes of a motion to dismiss, all well pleaded facts in a complaint are accepted as true, we consider that appellee has alleged facts which adequately reveal that the contract was to be performed in Florida and was there breached. The appellant's affidavit did not assert any facts which rebutted this contention.

The constitutional issue raised under the latter point is, however, much more complex than that asserted under the former. Appellant's contention that there were insufficient minimum contacts between the defendant and the forum state, and therefore that Florida could not constitutionally assert personal jurisdiction over him, rests upon his belief that a single, isolated act with the forum by a nonresident defendant can never meet the minimum contacts test required by International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945). Appellant relies upon certain supportive language found in Hyco Manufacturing Co. v. Rotex International Corp., 355 So.2d 471 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978); Elmex Corp. v. Atlantic Federal Savings & Loan Assoc., 325 So.2d 58 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976), and Lyster v. Round, 276 So.2d 186 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973).

Elmex and Lyster, however, are inapplicable to the case at bar because those two cases construed a different long-arm statute (Section 48.181) than the one now before us. The provisions of Section 48.181 apply to nonresident persons who "carry on a business or business venture in this state." Those words were interpreted by Elmex and Lyster as requiring a continuous, systematic activity with the forum by the out-of-state business enterprise. The statutory language of Section 48.193, however, is much broader in scope than that of Section 48.181. Service upon a nonresident defendant can be made under Section 48.193 for a number of reasons; the operating or conducting of a "business or business venture in this state" is only one of several activities delineated by that statute.

Lacy's reliance upon Hyco is, however, far more supportive of his position. The Third District's opinion in Hyco — unlike those in Elmex and Lyster — addressed the constitutionality of Section 48.193 as applied to the facts before it, and determined that a hoist manufactured by the defendant in Ohio, and later placed onto a trailer in Pennsylvania by a different corporation, which in turn sold the trailer to a company located in Florida, lacked a substantial connection with Florida, so that its Ohio manufacturer could not be subjected to the jurisdiction of the state of Florida. Hyco concluded with the broad statement that "an isolated act will not subject a foreign corporation or a nonresident to the jurisdiction of a Florida court ...", 355 *1053 So.2d at 475. A more accurate statement is that a single act may, depending upon the character or quality of the contact, subject the foreign corporation or nonresident to the jurisdiction of Florida courts.

Despite the contradictory state court opinions on the subject, the United States Supreme Court, in a series of decisions beginning with International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, and continuing through World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980), has never unqualifiedly held that a single, isolated transaction with the forum by an out-of-state defendant is so insubstantial that the forum would in all cases be precluded from asserting in personam jurisdiction. Indeed, in McGee v. International Life Insurance Co., 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957), the Court upheld against constitutional attack the application of California's long-arm statute over a Texas insurance company, despite facts showing only one contact by the insurer with California.[3] There the company had mailed a reinsurance certificate to an insured living in California, offering to insure him in accordance with the same terms of his original policy.

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Bluebook (online)
403 So. 2d 1050, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lacy-v-force-v-corp-fladistctapp-1981.