Regal Manufacturing Co. v. Louisiana Glass, Inc.

731 P.2d 1066, 83 Or. App. 463, 1987 Ore. App. LEXIS 2858
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJanuary 28, 1987
DocketA8412-07315; CA A37504
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 731 P.2d 1066 (Regal Manufacturing Co. v. Louisiana Glass, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Regal Manufacturing Co. v. Louisiana Glass, Inc., 731 P.2d 1066, 83 Or. App. 463, 1987 Ore. App. LEXIS 2858 (Or. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

*465 YOUNG, J.

Plaintiff petitions for reconsideration of our decision in which we affirmed without opinion the dismissal of the action for lack of personal jurisdiction over defendant. Regal Manufacturing Co. v. Louisiana Glass, Inc., 81 Or App 668, 725 P2d 1300 (1986). We allow the petition, ORAP 10.10, and reverse.

We summarize the facts from the allegations in the complaint and the affidavits. Plaintiff is an Oregon corporation located in Multnomah County and is a supplier of custom skylight frame systems, specifications and components to glazing contractors. Defendant, a Louisiana corporation, is a glazing contractor. Defendant learned about plaintiff through an independent manufacturer’s representative, who represented plaintiff as well as other manufacturers of products used in the glazing industry. The representative regularly called on defendant to discuss the products that he handled. On one of those visits he told defendant about plaintiffs products and left plaintiffs brochure. Sometime later, defendant expressed an interest in skylight frames, and the representative suggested that defendant call plaintiff. Defendant contacted plaintiff by telephone and then mailed plaintiff some skylight drawings and requested a quotation. Plaintiff prepared the quotation and mailed it to defendant. Defendant then called plaintiff and asked it to prepare detailed shop drawings. Plaintiff prepared the drawings and sent them to defendant. Defendant called plaintiff and requested detailed structural engineering calculations which plaintiff otherwise had not planned to prepare. Plaintiff complied and sent the calculations to defendant. Defendant then mailed plaintiff a revised set of the engineering calculations, as well as copies of revised shop drawings and a written request, stating, “Please enter for production immediately and with a delivery date.” On the basis of that order, plaintiff ordered approximately $12,500 worth of customized aluminum extrusions for use in the skylight system. Defendant cancelled the order before delivery. Plaintiff could not cancel its order for the aluminum extrusions.

Plaintiffs action is for breach of contract, claiming *466 damages for lost profits and the cost of the aluminum extrusions as incidental damages. On defendant’s motion, the action was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court has stated that there are two questions presented when applying jurisdictional statutes to nonresidents: (1) Does the case fall within the terms of a jurisdictional statute? and (2) Does due process permit an Oregon court, as a matter of constitutional law, to obtain and exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendant in such a case? State ex rel Hydraulic Servocontrols v. Dale, 294 Or 381, 384, 657 P2d 211 (1982).

Plaintiff argues that ORCP 4E(1), (2), (4) and 4L give the trial court jurisdiction over defendant. Each of the pertinent subsections of ORCP 4E is based on narrow and specific facts. They provide for jurisdiction in any action or proceeding which:

“(1) Arises out of a promise, made anywhere to the plaintiff or to some third party for the plaintiffs benefit, by the defendant to perform services within this state, to pay for services to be performed in this state by the plaintiff, or to guarantee payment for such services; or
“(2) Arises out of services actually performed for the plaintiff by the defendant within this state or services actually performed for the defendant by the plaintiff within this state, if such performance within this state was authorized or ratified by the defendant or payment for such services was guaranteed by the defendant; or * * * *
“(4) Relates to goods, documents of title, or other things of value sent from this state by the plaintiff to the defendant on the defendant’s order or direction or sent to a third person when payment for such goods, documents, or things was guaranteed by defendant * * *.”

In State ex rel Hydraulic Servocontrols v. Dale, supra, 294 Or at 384, the court distinguished subsections B through K of ORCP 4 from subsection L, the latter being the catchall provision extending Oregon jurisdiction to the outer limits of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.

“Subsections B. through K. of Rule 4 may appear to be redundant in view of the subsection L. catchall provision, but they are not superfluous. Based as they are on facts which the *467 United States Supreme Court has held to be adequate bases for jurisdiction, these more specific provisions serve to narrow the inquiry so that if a case falls within one of them, there is no need to litigate more involved issues of due process. * * * Once a plaintiff alleges facts bringing his or her case within a specific provision, that ordinarily will be the end of the matter. On the other hand, if resort to ORCP 4 L. is necessary, then the limits of due process must be explored.” (Footnote omitted; emphasis supplied.)

Hydraulic Servocontrols does not directly cite United States Supreme Court cases to support that portion of the quotation that we have emphasized. However, it is implicit in that statement that subsections B through K of ORCP 4 are based on factual circumstances which give rise to sufficient “minimum contacts” to satisfy the due process requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment. See International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 US 310, 316, 66 S Ct 154, 90 L Ed 95 (1945).

We note that the contract between the parties involves “goods” (the skylight frame system) and “services” (the design and manufacture of the system). To the extent that the action involves the performance of services, the complaint and the affidavits contain allegations and assertions of fact sufficient to confer jurisdiction over defendant under ORCP 4E(1) and (2). Those subsections, however, do not apply to goods. Subsection (4) is likewise inapplicable, because it requires that the goods be sent. Defendant canceled the order before that event occurred. We turn 1 to the catchall provision, ORCP 4L, which provides jurisdiction

“Notwithstanding a failure to satisfy the requirement of sections B. through K. of this rule, in any action where prosecution of the action against a defendant in this state is not inconsistent with the Constitution of this state or the Constitution of the United States.”

State ex rel White Lbr. v. Sulmonetti, 252 Or 121, 127, 448 P2d 571 (1968), sets out the requirements for the constitutional exercise of jurisdiction in a case involving a single transaction:

*468 “First, the defendant must purposefully avail himself of the privilege of acting in the forum state or of causing important consequences in that state. Second, the cause of action must arise from the consequences in the forum state of the defendant’s activities.

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731 P.2d 1066, 83 Or. App. 463, 1987 Ore. App. LEXIS 2858, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/regal-manufacturing-co-v-louisiana-glass-inc-orctapp-1987.