Smith v. Teledyne Continental Motors, Inc.

840 F. Supp. 2d 927, 2012 WL 10836, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 595
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Carolina
DecidedJanuary 3, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 9:10cv2152, 9:10cv2546
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 840 F. Supp. 2d 927 (Smith v. Teledyne Continental Motors, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Teledyne Continental Motors, Inc., 840 F. Supp. 2d 927, 2012 WL 10836, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 595 (D.S.C. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BERTELSMAN, Senior District Judge:1

INTRODUCTION

On March 15, 2010, at about 6:00 p.m., Robert Gary Jones, vacationing from his home in Georgia, was jogging on the beach at Hilton Head, South Carolina, when he was struck and killed by an airplane.

The plane, operated by Edward I. Smith, was a light single-engine aircraft Smith had made from a kit. As he was flying the plane up the Atlantic coast about ten miles offshore, the propeller fell off the plane and into the sea.

Smith attempted to make the Hilton Head airport, but came up short, crash landing on the beach and fatally striking Jones.

Jones was a 38-year-old stockbroker who left behind his wife and two small children. The Joneses were all citizens of Georgia.

Subsequently, Jones’s wife, Jennifer, was appointed administrator of his estate and filed this action in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. She named as defendants: Teledyne Continental Motors, Inc., the manufacturer of the airplane’s engine, a citizen of Delaware and Alabama; Smith, a citizen of Virginia, as pilot of the plane; Lancair International, Inc., manufacturer of the airframe, a citizen of Oregon; Penn Yan Aero Service, Inc., a citizen of New York, [929]*929which had serviced the plane prior to the crash; and Hartzell Propeller, Inc., a citizen of Ohio, manufacturer of the propeller.

Smith filed a separate action against defendants, Teledyne Continental Motors, Inc. and Hartzell Propeller, Inc., for damage to his airplane. His action was later consolidated with that of the Jones estate.

Lancair International, Inc. was subsequently dismissed by agreement.

All defendants have acceded to the personal jurisdiction of this Court except Teledyne, which filed motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Court ordered discovery to be conducted on this issue and appropriate briefing. Oral argument was held on the motions on December 15, 2011, at Charleston, and the motion is now ripe for decision.

ANALYSIS

A. Preliminary matters

Although some of the parties have argued the case as one of “general jurisdiction,” under which rubric it must be shown that a party’s presence in the forum state is so continuous and systematic that it may be deemed to be “at home” there,2 as the subsequent discussion herein will illustrate, Teledyne’s presence in South Carolina is not that pervasive. For the reasons hereafter discussed, however, the Court does hold that specific jurisdiction over Teledyne is proper and its motions to dismiss must be DENIED.

B. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro

Having carefully analyzed precedents of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Fourth Circuit, this Court concludes that the recent decision of the Supreme Court in J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 2780, 180 L.Ed.2d 765 (2011), and existing Fourth Circuit precedents are dispositive of the issue at bar.

The McIntyre decision is somewhat difficult to interpret because no single opinion was adopted by a majority of the Justices. Rather, there are three opinions which must be synthesized.

At the outset, a caveat must be noted: The plurality opinion, expressing the views of four Justices, does not state the holding of the Court.

It is well established, under Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977), that when a decision of the Court lacks a majority opinion, the opinion of the Justices concurring in the judgment on the “narrowest grounds” is to be regarded as the Court’s holding. 430 U.S. 188, 193, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977). The Marks rule does not apply, however, unless “the narrowest opinion represents ‘a common denominator of the Court’s reasoning’ and ‘embodpes] a position implicitly approved by at least five Justices who support the judgment.’” Association of Bituminous Contractors, Inc. v. Apfel, 156 F.3d 1246, 1254 (D.C.Cir.1998) (quoting King v. Palmer, 950 F.2d 771, 781 (D.C.Cir.1991)).

AT. Massey Coal Co., Inc. v. Massanari, 305 F.3d 226, 236 (4th Cir.2002).

As this Court interprets McIntyre, the “common denominator of the Court’s reasoning” and “a position approved by at least five Justices who support the judgment” is the “stream-of-commerce plus” rubric enunciated in an opinion by Justice O’Connor in Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court, 480 U.S. 102, 112, 107 S.Ct. 1026, 94 L.Ed.2d 92 (1987).

[930]*930McIntyre, like Asahi is a products liability case involving a product which was manufactured in a foreign country, which the “stream of commerce” brought to the United States. In Asahi it was valve stems for motorcycle tires; in McIntyre, it was an industrial machine. The defendants were foreign corporations. The commerce was foreign commerce.

In both cases, the Court held that personal jurisdiction did not exist because the defendants had engaged in no conduct which would subject them to being sued in a foreign country without offending “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.”3

In Asahi Justice O’Connor filed an opinion. Part II-B, in which seven Justices concurred, applied a straightforward reasonableness test. Under this test, these Justices agreed that it would be unduly burdensome on this foreign defendant — and thus a violation of due process — to permit it to be subjected to suit in the United States when it had engaged in minimal activity in this country, even though a fair number of its valve stems were found in tires sold here.

Justice O’Connor was joined by three other Justices in Part II-A of the same opinion stating that the mere foreseeability that a product placed into interstate commerce would end up in the forum state was not enough for personal jurisdiction, as advocated by four Justices in a concurring opinion. Asahi 480 U.S. at 112, 107 S.Ct. 1026.

Rather, she referred to cases which held that to be subject to such jurisdiction manufacturers “must have made deliberate decisions to market their products in the forum state.” Id. at 111-12, 107 S.Ct. 1026.

Justice O’Connor continued:

We now find this latter position to be consonant with the requirements of due process. The “substantial connection,” Burger King [Corp. v. Rudzewicz], 471 U.S. [462], at 475, 105 S.Ct. [2174], at 2184[, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985)]; McGee [v. International Life Ins. Co.], 355 U.S. [220], at 223, 78 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
840 F. Supp. 2d 927, 2012 WL 10836, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 595, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-teledyne-continental-motors-inc-scd-2012.