McGOWAN, Circuit Judge:
This appeal presents the issues of (1) jurisdiction over the person of appellee, raised by a motion to quash service of process, and (2) the adequacy of the complaint as tested by a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action. The District Court granted both motions. We reverse in each instance.
I
Appellant is the administratrix-of one Lloyd Washington, a life-long resident of the District of Columbia prior to his death on January 29, 1963. Through arrangements made by his employer, a foreign corporation doing business in the District, the decedent entered into a contractual agreement with appellee, Hospital Service Plan of New Jersey, whereby decedent was supplied with hospitalization insurance. On December 23,1962, decedent was admitted to a hospital in the District for medical treatment. Some two weeks later he was informed by the hospital that appellee disclaimed any liability for his expenses. An inquiry was made, apparently after decedent had appealed to his employer, but the only result of this was a formal letter from appellee to decedent, dated January 9, 1963, reaffirming the disclaimer. Upon receiving this letter, decedent insisted on leaving the hospital and going home. There, about two weeks later, he died. That day a letter to him from appellee was received, dated January 25, 1963, informing him that the earlier disclaimer had been mistaken, that he was covered by hospitalization insurance, and that appellee regretted “any inconvenience that may have been caused you in this instance.”
Appellee is a New Jersey corporation which has not qualified to do business in the District of Columbia or appointed any agent for service of process here. It has no office or employees in the District, and it sends no salesmen into the District nor otherwise directly solicits business here. It does, however, effect payment of claims in the District in two ways. If the insured is a patient in a District hospital that is a member of the so-called Inter-Plan Service Benefit Bank program administered nationally by the Blue Cross Association, the hospital notifies Group Hospitalization, Inc., a District of Columbia corporation engaged in business here, of the insured’s admission and of his discharge. Group Hospitalization, Inc., In turn notifies appellee and also the Blue Cross Association. Bills are submitted directly by the hospital to Group Hospitalization, Inc., and are paid by it. Since appellee is making the same kind of payments in New Jersey for foreign insurers, the Blue Cross Association at its offices in Chicago ■ functions as a clearing house for these payments, offsetting them against each other and adjusting the balances where necessary. This system was operative in this case; and the record shows that the number of District claims against appellee so handled was 143 in 1960, 202 in 1961, 164 in 1962, and 172 in the first ten months of 1963.
If the insured is an outpatient, or if the District hospital to which he is admitted is not a Blue Cross participant, payments are made directly by appellee to the hospital. The number of such payments was 19 in 1959, 26 in 1960, 19 in 1961, 46 in 1962, and 34 in the first ten months of 1963.
The complaint in this action sought damages for appellee’s erroneous representation to decedent that his insurance was not in effect. In support of its motion to dismiss, appellee urged in substance that any connection between the
damages claimed and its error was too remote to admit of legal cognizance; and that, in any event, the chain of causation was broken by decedent’s intervening decision to leave the hospital, which at the least constituted contributory negligence or risk assumption barring recovery.
II
Whether appellee can be sued in the District on this claim is a question not without its difficulty, especially since, unlike many jurisdictions, Congress has not acted to eliminate the “doing business” requirement in those situations where the claim arises out of a contract or tort having a substantial connection with the District. Appellee is obviously gratified to have residents of the District as purchasers of the protection it sells. It is equally obvious that, wherever the insuranee contracts may technically be said to have been entered into, their performance will normally be in the District, and that the administration of that performance is an essential aspect of appellee’s business. Despite all this, however, it may well be true that, in the absence of a long-arm statute of the newer stripe, a jurisdiction which must rest upon the older “doing business” approach cannot be justified solely by reference to such considerations.
We do know, however, that Congress has shown some special sensitivity towards those claims generated by events centering in the District. Section 334 (b) of Title 13 of the D.C.Code refers expressly to such claims and contemplates the existence of a “doing business” jurisdiction as to them even though the foreign corporation has no office or em
ployees within the District.
We examine the manifestations of appellee’s presence here against the background of that legislative concern.
Appellee concededly has none of the familiar indicia of office space, personnel, bank accounts, telephone listings, and so on, which have immemorially been the counters in the jurisdictional game. These presumably might have existed if appellee had acted itself to administer the performance in the District of its contracts with District residents. It appears, however, to have effected that administration in another way, that is to say, through the offices, personnel, and facilities of a sister insurer, Group Hospitalization, Inc., for whom it provides similar expert services in New Jersey.
Through this convenient arrangement, effectuated under the brooding omnipresence of the Blue Cross Association, a New Jersey corporation can carry on a business relationship with a District of Columbia resident, involving performance of the contract in the District, without ever appearing to have extended its physical embodiment beyond New Jersey’s borders.
We are not prepared to say, on the basis of what this record shows with respect to the relationship between appellee and Group Hospitalization, Inc., that there was no projection of appellee’s corporate presence into the District of Columbia adequate to support jurisdiction over a claim of this character. On the contrary, we think that presence was sufficiently tangible to require appellee, properly summoned,
to answer a District resident in a District court for an alleged dereliction having its immediate impact in the District. The concept of “doing business,” although heavily laden with the traditional paraphernalia of bank accounts and telephone listings, in our view still has enough vitality to encompass newer ways of making a corporate presence felt in a particular place for the advancement of the corporation’s essential business purposes.
Ill
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McGOWAN, Circuit Judge:
This appeal presents the issues of (1) jurisdiction over the person of appellee, raised by a motion to quash service of process, and (2) the adequacy of the complaint as tested by a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action. The District Court granted both motions. We reverse in each instance.
I
Appellant is the administratrix-of one Lloyd Washington, a life-long resident of the District of Columbia prior to his death on January 29, 1963. Through arrangements made by his employer, a foreign corporation doing business in the District, the decedent entered into a contractual agreement with appellee, Hospital Service Plan of New Jersey, whereby decedent was supplied with hospitalization insurance. On December 23,1962, decedent was admitted to a hospital in the District for medical treatment. Some two weeks later he was informed by the hospital that appellee disclaimed any liability for his expenses. An inquiry was made, apparently after decedent had appealed to his employer, but the only result of this was a formal letter from appellee to decedent, dated January 9, 1963, reaffirming the disclaimer. Upon receiving this letter, decedent insisted on leaving the hospital and going home. There, about two weeks later, he died. That day a letter to him from appellee was received, dated January 25, 1963, informing him that the earlier disclaimer had been mistaken, that he was covered by hospitalization insurance, and that appellee regretted “any inconvenience that may have been caused you in this instance.”
Appellee is a New Jersey corporation which has not qualified to do business in the District of Columbia or appointed any agent for service of process here. It has no office or employees in the District, and it sends no salesmen into the District nor otherwise directly solicits business here. It does, however, effect payment of claims in the District in two ways. If the insured is a patient in a District hospital that is a member of the so-called Inter-Plan Service Benefit Bank program administered nationally by the Blue Cross Association, the hospital notifies Group Hospitalization, Inc., a District of Columbia corporation engaged in business here, of the insured’s admission and of his discharge. Group Hospitalization, Inc., In turn notifies appellee and also the Blue Cross Association. Bills are submitted directly by the hospital to Group Hospitalization, Inc., and are paid by it. Since appellee is making the same kind of payments in New Jersey for foreign insurers, the Blue Cross Association at its offices in Chicago ■ functions as a clearing house for these payments, offsetting them against each other and adjusting the balances where necessary. This system was operative in this case; and the record shows that the number of District claims against appellee so handled was 143 in 1960, 202 in 1961, 164 in 1962, and 172 in the first ten months of 1963.
If the insured is an outpatient, or if the District hospital to which he is admitted is not a Blue Cross participant, payments are made directly by appellee to the hospital. The number of such payments was 19 in 1959, 26 in 1960, 19 in 1961, 46 in 1962, and 34 in the first ten months of 1963.
The complaint in this action sought damages for appellee’s erroneous representation to decedent that his insurance was not in effect. In support of its motion to dismiss, appellee urged in substance that any connection between the
damages claimed and its error was too remote to admit of legal cognizance; and that, in any event, the chain of causation was broken by decedent’s intervening decision to leave the hospital, which at the least constituted contributory negligence or risk assumption barring recovery.
II
Whether appellee can be sued in the District on this claim is a question not without its difficulty, especially since, unlike many jurisdictions, Congress has not acted to eliminate the “doing business” requirement in those situations where the claim arises out of a contract or tort having a substantial connection with the District. Appellee is obviously gratified to have residents of the District as purchasers of the protection it sells. It is equally obvious that, wherever the insuranee contracts may technically be said to have been entered into, their performance will normally be in the District, and that the administration of that performance is an essential aspect of appellee’s business. Despite all this, however, it may well be true that, in the absence of a long-arm statute of the newer stripe, a jurisdiction which must rest upon the older “doing business” approach cannot be justified solely by reference to such considerations.
We do know, however, that Congress has shown some special sensitivity towards those claims generated by events centering in the District. Section 334 (b) of Title 13 of the D.C.Code refers expressly to such claims and contemplates the existence of a “doing business” jurisdiction as to them even though the foreign corporation has no office or em
ployees within the District.
We examine the manifestations of appellee’s presence here against the background of that legislative concern.
Appellee concededly has none of the familiar indicia of office space, personnel, bank accounts, telephone listings, and so on, which have immemorially been the counters in the jurisdictional game. These presumably might have existed if appellee had acted itself to administer the performance in the District of its contracts with District residents. It appears, however, to have effected that administration in another way, that is to say, through the offices, personnel, and facilities of a sister insurer, Group Hospitalization, Inc., for whom it provides similar expert services in New Jersey.
Through this convenient arrangement, effectuated under the brooding omnipresence of the Blue Cross Association, a New Jersey corporation can carry on a business relationship with a District of Columbia resident, involving performance of the contract in the District, without ever appearing to have extended its physical embodiment beyond New Jersey’s borders.
We are not prepared to say, on the basis of what this record shows with respect to the relationship between appellee and Group Hospitalization, Inc., that there was no projection of appellee’s corporate presence into the District of Columbia adequate to support jurisdiction over a claim of this character. On the contrary, we think that presence was sufficiently tangible to require appellee, properly summoned,
to answer a District resident in a District court for an alleged dereliction having its immediate impact in the District. The concept of “doing business,” although heavily laden with the traditional paraphernalia of bank accounts and telephone listings, in our view still has enough vitality to encompass newer ways of making a corporate presence felt in a particular place for the advancement of the corporation’s essential business purposes.
Ill
Appellant’s complaint has its highly ambivalent aspects, as might be expected from the fact that its opening characterization is “Tort-Arising Out of Contract.” It appears to allege in so many words that appellee’s error contributed to decedent’s death, although at the oral argument appellant’s counsel seemed disinclined to state his cause of action in these terms.
That claim would, of
course, present an understandable theory, whatever difficulties of proof it might entail. The complaint also advances other elements of damage founded upon difficulties and hardships assertedly caused by decedent’s having to spend his last few days on earth at his home rather than in a hospital. These are somewhat more elusive, at least on the limited record before us.
The District Court did not identify its reasons for dismissing the complaint. Having first ordered the service of process quashed, the dismissal could have been an inevitable sequel to that action. We do know that appellee now justifies dismissal on the general grounds of remoteness, on the one hand, and contributory negligence or assumption of risk, on the other. Taking the complaint as it stands, however, we cannot say that any of these possible reasons warranted striking the complaint at this stage. It may well be that appellant faces peculiarly difficult problems of proof in respect of both causation and damages, but a cause of action does not fail in theory solely because its prospects of success are problematical.
We are quite clear that doctrines of contributory negligence or assumption of risk do not warrant dismissal of the complaint at this stage of the litigation. Appellee’s stock in trade is the peace of mind it represents as assured by the knowledge that the catastrophe of illness, especially for people of slender means, will not be compounded by concern over how the often crushing weight of hospital expenses is to be borne. When the decedent in this case was told not once but twice that appellee denied any liability, we do not think it can be said as a matter of law that he must be taken to have left the hospital at his sole peril. He presumably would not have been there in the first place but for his acceptance at their face value of appellee’s claims as to the prudentiality of hospitalization insurance. This proposition strikes us as oddly at variance with the public image of the mission of businesses like appellee’s. But, in any case, if appellee wishes to continue to ventilate it, it should be in the context of the ascertainment at trial of all the relevant facts.
We are, we repeat, in some doubt as to just what theory appellant expects to pursue; and it may be that further pretrial proceedings will illuminate it further to her good or ill. All we now hold is that there was jurisdiction, and that we cannot discern from what is before us an adequate justification for dismissing the complaint. We reverse and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
It is so ordered.