Lennartz v. Joiner

947 So. 2d 385, 2006 Ala. LEXIS 137
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 30, 2006
Docket1050425
StatusPublished

This text of 947 So. 2d 385 (Lennartz v. Joiner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lennartz v. Joiner, 947 So. 2d 385, 2006 Ala. LEXIS 137 (Ala. 2006).

Opinion

HARWOOD, Justice.

Mark Wayne Gregory petitions this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Colbert Circuit Court to grant his motion for a summary judgment based on an assertion of lack of personal jurisdiction. We grant the petition and issue the writ.

Facts and Procedural History

Fifteen-year-old Erin Lennartz accompanied her friend, Allie Joiner, and Allie’s parents, Robert and Kim Joiner, of Florence, Alabama, on a trip to Colorado. During the course of the trip they spent several days as guests of Kim’s parents, Mark Wayne Gregory (“Gregory”) and Brenda E. Gregory, at their “second home” in Lake City, Colorado. The Greg-orys’ principal home is in Tennessee where they have lived continuously for at least the last 15 years. During that same 15-year period, Gregory, a 65-year-old retired civil engineer, has neither lived nor worked nor done any business in Alabama. On July 5, 2004, Gregory allowed Erin, accompanied by Allie as her passenger, to operate a four-wheel all-terrain motor vehicle owned by Gregory, despite the facts that Erin had never operated the vehicle by herself and that she was not wearing a helmet. Erin lost control of the vehicle and it wrecked, causing Erin to sustain a head injury. She received medical treatment in Colorado and subsequently returned to Alabama where she received additional treatment.

Erin and her parents, Catherine J. Len-nartz and Richard Lennartz, all residents of Alabama, sued the Joiners and Gregory in the Colbert Circuit Court alleging negligence or wantonness in entrusting the all-terrain vehicle to Erin, allowing her to operate it, supervising her, and failing to provide her with, or requiring her to wear, a helmet. The-parents claim damages for medical expenses incurred and for the loss of Erin’s services; the nature of Erin’s own claim for damages is not explained by the parties’ submissions to this Court. The complaint acknowledged that Gregory was a resident of Tennessee and that the accident had occurred in Colorado.

Gregory timely answered the complaint, asserting, among other things, that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over him. On September 30, 2005, Gregory moved for a summary judgment on the basis that the court did not have personal jurisdiction over him, given that he was a resident of Tennessee and that the accident occurred in Colorado.1 The motion was supported by an affidavit from Brenda E. Gregory attesting to her husband’s 15-year continuous residency in Tennessee and his lack of contact with Alabama (also explaining that at the time she provided the affidavit he was in Venezuela working with a missionary, necessitating that she provide the facts in question).

The Lennartzes filed their opposition to Gregory’s summary-judgment motion, asserting (1) that the motion should either be continued or denied pending response by Gregory to interrogatories and document-production requests previously served on him by the Lennartzes and (2) that personal jurisdiction was sustainable as to Grego[388]*388ry because it should have been foreseeable to him that the harm he caused Erin would ultimately have consequences in the State of Alabama. With respect to the unanswered discovery, counsel for the Len-nartzes submitted an affidavit, attaching to it as exhibits a copy of the subject interrogatories and production requests filed two months earlier, asserting that the information sought by the discovery was “essential in order to adequately oppose” the summary-judgment motion. With respect to the “foreseeable consequences in Alabama,” the Lennartzes identified only the medical expenses ultimately incurred there and the loss of Erin’s services. The trial judge denied Gregory’s motion for a summary judgment.

Gregory petitioned this Court for a writ of mandamus on January 3, 2006. Thereafter, on February 21 the Lennartzes filed a motion with the trial court to compel Gregory’s responses to their pending discovery; that motion was granted on February 24. We ordered answer and briefs in the mandamus proceeding. The Len-nartzes filed their “Answer” and separate “Response” on March 27 and Gregory filed his response to their answer on April 6.

Analysis

“[A] petition for a writ of mandamus is the proper device by which to challenge the denial of a motion to dismiss for lack of in personam jurisdiction. See Ex parte Mclnnis, 820 So.2d 795 (Ala.2001); Ex parte Paul Maclean Land Servs., Inc., 613 So.2d 1284, 1286 (Ala.1993). ‘ “An appellate court considers de novo a trial court’s judgment on a party’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.”’ Ex parte Lar grone, 839 So.2d 620, 623 (Ala.2002) (quoting Elliott v. Van Kleef 830 So.2d 726, 729 (Ala.2002)). Moreover, ‘[t]he plaintiff bears the burden of proving the court’s personal jurisdiction over the defendant.’ Daynard v. Ness, Motley, Loadholt, Richardson & Poole, P.A., 290 F.3d 42, 50 (1st Cir.2002). See also Beasley v. Schuessler, 519 So.2d 551, 553 (Ala.Civ.App.1987); 5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1351 (2d ed.1990).
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“ ‘A physical presence in Alabama is not a prerequisite to personal jurisdiction over a nonresident.’ Sieber v. Campbell, 810 So.2d 641, 644 (Ala.2001). What is required, however, is that the defendant have such contacts with Alabama that it ‘ “should reasonably anticipate being haled into court [here].” ’ Dillon Equities v. Palmer & Cay, Inc., 501 So.2d 459, 462 (Ala.1986) (quoting World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 297, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980)).
“Depending on the quality and quantity of the contacts, jurisdiction may be either general or specific. Leventhal v. Harrelson, 723 So.2d 566, 569 (Ala.1998). ‘General jurisdiction applies where a defendant’s activities in the forum state are “substantial” or “continuous and systematic,” regardless of whether those activities gave rise to the lawsuit.... A court has specific jurisdiction when a defendant has had few contacts with the forum state, but those contacts gave rise to the lawsuit.’ Id.
“But regardless of whether jurisdiction is alleged to be general or specific, the nexus between the defendant and the forum state must arise out of ‘ “an action of the defendant [that was] purposefully directed toward the forum State.” Elliott, supra, 830 So.2d at 731 (quoting Asahi Metal Indus. Co. v. Superior Court of California, 480 U.S. 102, 112, 107 S.Ct. 1026, 94 L.Ed.2d 92 (1987)).”

[389]*389Ex parte Dill, Dill, Carr, Stonbraker & Hutchings, P.C., 866 So.2d 519, 525 (Ala.2003).

Other cases emphasizing the requirement that the conduct of the defendant giving rise to the action be purposefully directed at the forum state include Ex parte United Ins. Cos., 936 So.2d 1049 (Ala.2006); Ex parte Covington Pike Dodge, Inc., 904 So.2d 226 (Ala.2004); Ex parte Georgia Farm, Bureau Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 889 So.2d 545 (Ala.2004); Ex parte Alloy Wheels Int’l, Ltd.,

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947 So. 2d 385, 2006 Ala. LEXIS 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lennartz-v-joiner-ala-2006.