Home/N.D. California/Power Integrations, Inc. v. Silanna Semiconductor North America, Inc.

Power Integrations, Inc. v. Silanna Semiconductor North America, Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided December 3, 2019·No. 5:19-cv-02700·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 POWER INTEGRATIONS, INC., Case No. 19-cv-02700-SVK

8 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF 9 v. POWER INTEGRATIONS, INC.’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE 10 EDISON D. DE LARA, et al., MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION 11 Defendants. Re: Dkt. No. 50

13 14 Before the Court is the motion of Plaintiff Power Integrations, Inc. (“Plaintiff” or “PI”) for 15 leave to file a motion for reconsideration. Dkt. 50 (“motion for leave”). PI seeks leave to file a motion for reconsideration of this Court’s November 18, 2018 order granting Defendant The 16 Penbrothers International Inc.’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. See Dkt. 49 17 (“dismissal order”). 18 Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-9(a), a party may file a motion for reconsideration of any 19 interlocutory order only upon obtaining leave of the Court. A party seeking reconsideration must 20 show, inter alia, (1) “[t]hat at the time of the motion for leave, a material difference in fact or law 21 exists from that which was presented to the Court before entry of the interlocutory order for which 22 reconsideration is sought”; (2) “[t]he emergence of new material facts or a change of law 23 occurring after the time of such order”; or (3) “[a] manifest failure by the Court to consider 24 material facts or dispositive legal arguments which were presented to the Court before such 25 interlocutory order.” Civ. L.R. 7-9(b). A motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration 26 may not “repeat any oral or written argument made by the applying party in support of or in 27 opposition to the interlocutory order which the party now seeks to have reconsidered.” Civ. L.R. 1 In its motion for leave, PI argues that (1) the Court relied on Hudnall v. Payne, No. 13-cv- 2 04728-WHO, 2014 WL 524079, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15016 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 6, 2014) “[a]s the 3 basis for denying Power Integrations’ requests for jurisdictional discovery and leave to amend,” 4 but Power Integrations did not have a chance to address that case because it was not raised until 5 the rebuttal portion of Penbrothers’ oral argument at the October 29, 2019 hearing on Penbrothers’ 6 motion to dismiss; and (2) the Court’s dismissal order did not take into account allegations in the 7 First Amended Complaint about the alleged conspiracy between Penbrothers and Silanna to 8 secretly raid the engineers of PI to work for Silanna in California, which give rise to a “strong 9 inference” that Penbrothers knew that the effect of the alleged raid was directed to and would be 10 felt in California. Dkt. 50 (motion for leave) at 2-3. 11 PI’s arguments do not meet the standard required before leave to file a motion for 12 reconsideration may be granted. PI’s argument regarding Hudnall mischaracterizes the Court’s 13 dismissal order and the record in this case. Contrary to PI’s argument, the Court did not rely on 14 Hudnall as “the basis for denying Power Integrations’ requests for jurisdictional discovery and 15 leave to amend.” Dkt. 50 at 1 (citing Dkt. 49 (dismissal order) at 7) (emphasis added). Read in 16 full, the relevant portion in the dismissal order states:

17 PI’s argument in favor of jurisdictional discovery is little more than a hunch that 18 some of Penbrothers’ communications with Silanna may have been sent to or from California; even if this is true, it would not provide a sufficient basis for 19 jurisdiction. “[O]rdinarily use of the mails, telephone, or other international communications simply do not qualify as purposeful activity invoking the benefits 20 and protections of the forum state.” Hudnall v. Payne, No. 13-cv-04728-WHO, 2014WL 524079, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 6, 2014) (quoting Peterson v. Kennedy, 771 21 F.2d 1244, 1262 (9th Cir. 1985)). Accordingly, PI’s request for jurisdictional 22 discovery is denied, and the dismissal of the FAC as to Penbrothers is WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND. 23 Dkt. 49 (dismissal order) at 7-8 (citation omitted). As thus explained in the order, the Court’s 24 denial of discovery was based first and foremost on the fact that PI had offered only a “hunch” that 25 discovery would lead to evidence of mail or other contacts between Penbrothers and Silanna in 26 California. See id. at 7 (“At the hearing, PI argued that it should be given the opportunity to 27 conduct jurisdictional discovery if the Court was inclined to rule against it, arguing that it is not 1 believable that Penbrothers could have recruited the Individual Defendants without some contacts 2 with Silanna in California”); see also Dkt. 45 (transcript of Oct. 30, 2019 hearing) at 19:22-20:3 3 (“It’s just not believable that Penbrothers would be able to find those employees and target them 4 and set up these offer letters and offer employment, essentially, by Silanna, even though under the 5 guise of Penbrothers without any communication, without any contact with Silanna in California. 6 It’s just not credible.”). The conclusion that PI’s request for jurisdictional discovery was based 7 only on a hunch is reinforced by statements in its motion for leave. See, e.g., Dkt. 50 (motion for 8 leave) at 4 (referring to purported communications between Penbrothers and Silanna “whether 9 directly or through yet another secret, unidentified agent”). 10 As the Court further explained in the dismissal order, even if PI’s “hunch” was correct that 11 Penbrothers had communications with Silanna in California, under Hudnall and related authority, 12 such communications ordinarily do not qualify as purposeful activity subjecting an out-of-state 13 defendant to personal jurisdiction in California. Dkt. 49 (dismissal order) at 7. 14 Under these circumstances, the Court exercised its “broad discretion” to deny jurisdictional 15 discovery, explaining that denial of discovery is not an abuse of discretion “when it is clear that 16 further discovery would not demonstrate facts sufficient to constitute a basis for jurisdiction, or 17 when the request for discovery is based on little more than a hunch that it might yield facts 18 relevant to jurisdiction.” Dkt. 49 (dismissal order) at 7 (citing Los Gatos Mercantile, Inc. v. E.I. 19 DuPont De Nemours & Co., No. 13-CF-01180-BLF, 2015 WL 4755335, at *11 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20 11, 2015)). 21 Nor is PI’s argument that it did not have an opportunity to address Hudnall or Peterson 22 well-taken. Although it did not address those cases specifically, PI argued in its opposition brief 23 and at oral argument that it should be permitted to conduct discovery into Penbrothers’ 24 communications with Silanna. See, e.g., Dkt. 33 (opposition) at 7 n.4 (requesting opportunity to 25 take jurisdictional discovery, arguing that evidence submitted by Penbrothers is “conspicuously 26 silent on Penbrothers’ communications with Silanna”); Dkt. 45 (transcript of Oct. 30, 2019 27 hearing) at 21:2-14 (arguing that there is an inference that there must be communication between 1 This is the same argument PI repeats in its motion for leave. Dkt. 50 (motion for leave) at 4-5 2 (arguing that PI should be permitted to conduct discovery into nature and extent of Penbrothers’ 3 communications with Silanna). 4 For similar reasons, the Court also rejects PI’s argument that the dismissal order did not 5 take into account allegations in the First Amended Complaint about the alleged conspiracy 6 between Penbrothers and Silanna to secretly raid the engineers of PI to work for Silanna in 7 California. PI argues that the allegations of its complaint give rise to a “strong inference” that 8 Penbrothers knew that the effect of the alleged raid was directed to and would be felt in California. 9 But as the Court noted in the dismissal order, the FAC is silent as to where most of the acts in this 10 case, including those giving rise to the alleged conspiracy between Penbrothers and Silanna, 11 occurred. Dkt. 49 (dismissal order) at 6.

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Power Integrations, Inc. v. Silanna Semiconductor North America, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2019).

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