Project Engineering USA Corp. v. Gator Hawk, Inc.

833 S.W.2d 716, 1992 WL 156885
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 9, 1992
Docket01-90-01140-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 833 S.W.2d 716 (Project Engineering USA Corp. v. Gator Hawk, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Project Engineering USA Corp. v. Gator Hawk, Inc., 833 S.W.2d 716, 1992 WL 156885 (Tex. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

OPINION

MIRABAL, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment, after a.bench trial, in a suit for wrongful conversion of oil field testing units. We affirm.

Gator Hawk, Inc. (Gator Hawk), a Texas corporation, sued appellant Project Engineering USA Corporation (Project), a California corporation, and appellant Les Goet-ting (Goetting), president and sole owner of Project, for conversion of two oil field pipe testing units. The units test the external seals around pipe joints. Gator Hawk sought damages, attorney’s fees, a temporary restraining order, and temporary and permanent injunctions. A temporary restraining order, granted ex parte on June 7, 1990, ordered Project and Goetting to refrain from “using, transferring, damaging, operating, destroying, or otherwise disposing of the testing units.”

Project and Goetting filed a special appearance and motion to dismiss contesting the trial court’s jurisdiction. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the motion to dismiss, and granted Gator Hawk a temporary injunction.

Project and Goetting then filed a plea in abatement alleging a lawsuit involving the same controversy was pending in California, and seeking an abatement of the Texas lawsuit until the litigation in California was completed. After a hearing, the trial court overruled the plea in abatement.

Following a trial on the merits to the bench, the trial court rendered judgment ordering Project and Goetting to surrender the two testing units to Gator Hawk, and holding Project and Goetting jointly and severally liable to Gator Hawk for damages of $4,290, plus interest. The trial court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law.

In their first three points of error, appellants assert the trial court erred in concluding it had in personam jurisdiction over them, because the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support that conclusion. Appellants argue the trial court’s ruling was erroneous because (1) the exercise of jurisdiction over appellants is not consistent with federal constitutional due process guaranties, and (2) the Texas long-arm statute 1 does not authorize the exercise of jurisdiction over appellants.

In its first amended original petition, Gator Hawk alleged Project’s and Goetting’s actions in performing business in the state of Texas were sufficient to constitute the minimum contacts necessary to impose long-arm jurisdiction over them. At the hearing on their Tex.R.Civ.P. 120a special appearance, appellants, as the nonresident defendants, each had the burden of proof to negate all bases of personal jurisdiction. Kawasaki Steel Corp. v. Middleton, 699 S.W.2d 199, 203 (Tex.1985). On this appeal, we review the record to determine if appellants negated every possible ground for personal jurisdiction. General Elec. Co. v. Brown & Ross Int’l Distrib., Inc., 804 S.W.2d 527, 529-30 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1990, writ denied).

At the rule 120a hearing, appellants did not present live testimony, but instead re *720 lied on two affidavits, each signed by Goet-ting. Both affidavits stated the following:

1. I [Les Goetting] am the President of Project Engineering USA Corp., a California corporation. A copy of its charter is attached hereto and incorporated herein for all purposes. The principal place of business of Project Engineering USA Corp. is the City of Ventura, County of Ventura, State of California. The sole office of Project Engineering USA Corp. is in Ventu-ra, California.
2. Project Engineering Corp. is not a resident of the State of Texas and is not required to maintain a registered agent for service in the State of Texas.
3. Project Engineering USA Corp. does not now engage or has not engaged in business in Texas nor has committed any tort in Texas in whole or in part, within the State.
4. Project Engineering USA Corp. does not maintain a place of business in Texas and has no employees, servants, or agents within the State.
5. The equipment the subject of this lawsuit was purchased in the State of California. Since purchase by your affiant the equipment has never left the State of California. To your affi-ant’s knowledge, prior to purchase, the equipment never was in the State of Texas.
6. The equipment was purchased from a California company which has its principal location in California and which has no Texas office.
7. Project Engineering USA Corp. has done business with Texas company [sic] but all such business has been done exclusively in the State of California.

Both affidavits dealt only with the corporation’s activities; neither addressed the activities of Goetting, as an individual, in connection with the state of Texas.

Four witnesses testified at the hearing on behalf of Gator Hawk. Malvern Hasha, president of Gator Hawk, testified as follows: In 1986 and 1987, Project was a sales representative in California for a Texas corporation operating under the name of Tubular Testing Technology (TTT). In July 1986, Les Goetting signed the affiliation agreement in California and returned it by mail to Texas. Goetting visited TTT in Houston shortly after the contract was signed to discuss their relationship and the contract. Project sold TTT’s testing services to customers located only in California and Colorado, and TTT paid Project for its sales agent services. The affiliation contract was terminated in 1987, and since that time Project and TTT have had no other relationship with each other.

Clarence Hyatt, vice-president of marketing and domestic sales for Texas Iron Works, Inc. (TIW), testified as follows: Since January 1980, Project has been acting as a non-exclusive distributor for TIW in California. Goetting signed the distributor agreement in Houston; it had been negotiated in California. The agreement contains a choice-of-law provision, choosing Texas law as controlling. The agreement also contains a choice-of-forum provision, choosing Texas state courts sitting in Houston, Texas, as the proper forum for any litigation between the parties. Pursuant to the agreement, Project would sell TIW equipment to California customers, TIW would deliver the product directly to the customers, TIW would invoice the customers directly, and TIW would pay Project a sales commission. Only one sale had actually been made under the contract at the time of the hearing. Except for the time Goetting came to Houston to sign the contract, no one else from Project has met with TIW in Texas, and no future visits by appellants were definitely scheduled. However, Mr. Hyatt stated his expectation of a future visit by appellants to Texas if the present business relationship between the two companies produced a long term business agreement.

Carl Davis, president of Davis-Lynch Inc. (DLI), a Houston company, testified as follows: Project and Goetting were manufacturer’s representatives for DLI in Ven-tura, California.

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Bluebook (online)
833 S.W.2d 716, 1992 WL 156885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/project-engineering-usa-corp-v-gator-hawk-inc-texapp-1992.