Pace v. Cirrus Design Corporation

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 3, 2024
Docket23-60465
StatusUnpublished

This text of Pace v. Cirrus Design Corporation (Pace v. Cirrus Design Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pace v. Cirrus Design Corporation, (5th Cir. 2024).

Opinion

Case: 23-60465 Document: 173-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/03/2024

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

____________ FILED June 3, 2024 No. 23-60465 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk

Glen Pace,

Plaintiff—Appellant,

versus

Cirrus Design Corporation, Individually and doing business as Cirrus Aircraft Corporation; Continental Aerospace Technologies, Incorporated, Individually and doing business as Continental Motor Corporation; AmSafe, Incorporated; Apteryx, Incorporated, doing business as Arapahoe Aero; Hartzell Engine Technologies; Fixed Wing Aviation Maintenance; Special Services Corporation; Don George Aircraft; Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Company,

Defendants—Appellees. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi USDC No. 3:22-CV-685 ______________________________

Before Smith, Wiener, and Douglas, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam: *

_____________________ * This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5. Case: 23-60465 Document: 173-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 06/03/2024

No. 23-60465

Plaintiff-Appellant Glen Pace appeals the district court’s dismissal of his complaint against Defendants-Appellees Cirrus Design Corporation, d/b/a Cirrus Aircraft Corporation (“Cirrus”), Continental Aerospace Technologies, Incorporated, d/b/a Continental Motor Corporation (“Continental”), AmSafe, Incorporated (“AmSafe”), Apteryx, Incorporated, d/b/a Arapahoe Aero (“Apteryx”), Hartzell Engine Technologies (“Hartzell”), Fixed Wing Aviation Maintenance (“Fixed Wing”), Special Services Corporation (“SSC”), Don George Aircraft (“Don George”), and Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Company (“ASSC”). Pace challenges the district court’s determination that it had subject matter jurisdiction and its dismissal of all defendants. We AFFIRM the district court’s conclusions, with the exception of its dismissal of Cirrus, Continental, AmSafe, and Apteryx with prejudice. We therefore REVERSE IN PART and REMAND with instructions to the district court to amend its order to specify that its dismissal of those defendants is without prejudice. I. Background and the Effect of the Court’s Decision in Pace I This dispute arises out of personal injuries that Pace sustained after the single-engine general aviation aircraft that he was piloting crashed during a flight between Terrell, Texas, and Gladewater, Texas. In Pace’s first action based on these underlying facts, he filed suit in Mississippi state court. The case was removed to federal court, then dismissed on personal jurisdiction grounds. On appeal, a panel of this court affirmed, holding that (1) removal was proper because the two non-diverse defendants, Wade Walters and Per- formance Aviation (the “Mississippi defendants”), were improperly joined, and (2) the district court was correct in concluding that it lacked personal jurisdiction over defendants Cirrus Continental, Apteryx, and AmSafe. See Pace v. Cirrus Design Corp., 93 F.4th 879, 894, 902 (5th Cir. 2024) (“Pace I”).

2 Case: 23-60465 Document: 173-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 06/03/2024

Shortly after Pace filed a notice of appeal in Pace I, he filed a second action in state court (“Pace II”) based on the same underlying facts, but add- ing five additional corporate defendants: Hartzell, Fixed Wing, SSC, Don George, and ASSC. ROA.55-63 (Pace II complaint); compare with ROA.353-383 (Pace I complaint). As in Pace I, the only non-diverse defend- ants in Pace II were the Mississippi defendants. After removal, the district court held in Pace II that (1) res judicata barred relitigation of the improper joinder issue, so it had diversity subject matter jurisdiction; and (2) res judi- cata and/or lack of personal jurisdiction required dismissal of the remaining defendants. ROA.6289. As for the corporate defendants that were originally parties to Pace I, the district court concluded that res judicata barred Pace’s relitigation of the claims against Cirrus, Continental, Apertyx, and AmSafe, and dismissed those claims with prejudice. ROA.6267-6270. As for the newly-added defendants (the “Pace II defendants”), the district court con- ducted a new analysis of personal jurisdiction, found that it lacked personal jurisdiction, and dismissed Pace’s claims against Hartzell, Fixed Wing, SSC, and Don George without prejudice. ROA.6276-6284. It also dismissed Pace’s claims against ASSC for his failure to prosecute them without preju- dice and denied his motion for jurisdictional discovery. ROA.6289. Pace ap- pealed.ROA.6295-6296. As in Pace I, the only non-diverse defendants are the Mississippi de- fendants. Because we are bound by our decision in Pace I, and because Pace’s complaint in Pace II is simply a reiteration of the complaint in Pace I with the addition of five new defendants, we need not conduct another analysis of whether the Mississippi defendants were improperly joined. We reaffirm our conclusion in Pace I, as well as the district court’s conclusion in Pace II that the joinder to the action of the non-diverse Mississippi defendants did not deprive the district court of subject matter jurisdiction. See Pace I, 93 F.4th at 894. The district court thus properly denied Pace’s motion to remand and

3 Case: 23-60465 Document: 173-1 Page: 4 Date Filed: 06/03/2024

had jurisdiction to consider the remaining defendants’ various motions to dismiss. Furthermore, based on our conclusion in Pace I that the district court did not have personal jurisdiction over defendants Cirrus, Continental, Ap- teryx, and AmSafe, we will not conduct yet another jurisdictional analysis as to those defendants. See id. at 898–902. The district court was again correct, in Pace II, in concluding that Cirrus, Continental, Apteryx, and AmSafe should be dismissed. However, it erred in dismissing those defendants with prejudice. Res judicata requires the preclusive judgment to be on the merits. A dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, however, is ordinarily not an adju- dication on the merits. See Guidry v. U.S. Tobacco Co., 188 F.3d 619, 623 n.2 (5th Cir. 1999); Perez v. Walt Disney Co., No. 22-200084, 2023 WL 3092288, at *1 (5th Cir. Apr. 26, 2023) (unpublished); ITL Int’l, Inc. v. Cafe Soluble, S.A., 464 F. App’x 241, 244 (5th Cir. 2012) (unpublished). Nevertheless, “[a]lthough a jurisdictional ruling is technically not an adjudication on the merits, ‘[i]t has long been the rule that principles of res judicata apply to ju- risdictional determinations—both subject matter and personal.’” Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., 718 F.3d 460, 469 (5th Cir. 2013) (quoting Frank C. Minvielle LLC v. Atl. Ref. Co., 337 F. App’x 429, 435 (5th Cir. 2009) (per curiam)). Taken together, the district court correctly concluded that res ju- dicata barred Pace’s attempt to relitigate its adverse jurisdictional rulings re- garding Cirrus, Continental, Apteryx, and AmSafe. But, because the merits of Pace’s claims against these defendants have never been decided, the dis- missal should have been without prejudice. See Perez, No. 22-20084, 2023 WL 3092288, at *1. We therefore reverse that portion of the district court’s order and remand with instructions to indicate that its dismissal of Cirrus, Continental, Apteryx, and AmSafe is without prejudice. See id. Our disposition of Pace I, which occurred during the pendency of this appeal, alleviates us from the responsibility of analyzing whether the district

4 Case: 23-60465 Document: 173-1 Page: 5 Date Filed: 06/03/2024

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Guidry v. United States Tobacco Co.
188 F.3d 619 (Fifth Circuit, 1999)
Revell v. Lidov
317 F.3d 467 (Fifth Circuit, 2002)
Fielding v. Hubert Burda Media, Inc.
415 F.3d 419 (Fifth Circuit, 2005)
Frank C. Minvielle LLC v. Atlantic Refining Co.
337 F. App'x 429 (Fifth Circuit, 2009)
International Shoe Co. v. Washington
326 U.S. 310 (Supreme Court, 1945)
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S. A. v. Brown
131 S. Ct. 2846 (Supreme Court, 2011)
Duncan v. Smith
70 F.3d 1267 (Fifth Circuit, 1995)
Daimler AG v. Bauman
134 S. Ct. 746 (Supreme Court, 2014)
Jay Nottingham v. Warden Bill Clements Unit
837 F.3d 438 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
Jernard Griggs v. S.G.E. Management, L.L.C.
905 F.3d 835 (Fifth Circuit, 2018)
Maria Frank v. P N K (Lake Charles) L.L.C.
947 F.3d 331 (Fifth Circuit, 2020)
Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist.
592 U.S. 351 (Supreme Court, 2021)
Johnson v. TheHuffingtonpost.com
21 F.4th 314 (Fifth Circuit, 2021)
Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.
718 F.3d 460 (Fifth Circuit, 2013)
ITL International, Inc. v. Café Soluble, S.A.
464 F. App'x 241 (Fifth Circuit, 2012)
Pace v. Cirrus Design Corp
93 F.4th 879 (Fifth Circuit, 2024)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Pace v. Cirrus Design Corporation, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pace-v-cirrus-design-corporation-ca5-2024.