Southern Idaho Pipe & Steel Co. v. Cal-Cut Pipe & Supply, Inc.

567 P.2d 1246, 98 Idaho 495, 22 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 25, 1977 Ida. LEXIS 414
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 1977
Docket12345
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 567 P.2d 1246 (Southern Idaho Pipe & Steel Co. v. Cal-Cut Pipe & Supply, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Idaho Pipe & Steel Co. v. Cal-Cut Pipe & Supply, Inc., 567 P.2d 1246, 98 Idaho 495, 22 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 25, 1977 Ida. LEXIS 414 (Idaho 1977).

Opinions

DONALDSON, Justice.

This case involves a contract action under the Uniform Commercial Code. Appellant Cal-Cut Pipe & Supply, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Cal-Cut) is a California based corporation dealing in used steel pipe. It has operated in the State of Idaho for a number of years. It is undisputed that respondent Southern Idaho Pipe & Steel Co. has dealt with Cal-Cut for the last ten years. Cal-Cut does not maintain sales offices or agents in the state, however. Its method of operation is to advertise in Idaho by mail or telephone. Deliveries are made in California as are the contracts of sale. The buyer is responsible for transporting the steel pipe.

On June 23, 1973, Southern Idaho received in the mail a publication advising that Cal-Cut wished to negotiate the sale of used steel pipe under specified terms. Several phone conversations ensued culminating in Cal-Cut’s making of a formal written offer to sell to Southern Idaho. This occurred on August 7, 1973. The offer was accepted by mail, but Southern Idaho changed the final delivery date from October 15, 1973 to December 15, 1973. Southern Idaho enclosed a $20,000 check along with its acceptance, which check was deposited in Cal-Cut’s bank account. It is disputed by the parties whether the change in the delivery date was discussed in subsequent communications. But both parties agree that they negotiated a change in the minimum amount of steel pipe that had to be sold to Southern Idaho from 40,000 to 30,-000 feet. On August 20, 1973, Cal-Cut sent the written confirmation to Southern Idaho. The confirmation included the changed minimum requirement of 30,000 feet of steel and the original final delivery date of October 15. At the bottom of this confir[497]*497mation was the postscript, “We will work it out.” Southern Idaho did take delivery of 12,937 feet of pipe in California between September 8, 1973 and October 5, 1973.

Sometime in October, Cal-Cut refused to make any more pipe available. The parties disagreed as to when this occurred. Cal-Cut said it was October 17, 1973, Southern Idaho maintains that it was around the first of October and that the reason given by Cal-Cut was that the sale was not profitable. It is undisputed that the supply of steel pipe was in short supply and that market prices rose sharply during the latter part of 1973 and during 1974.

The threshold issue on appeal is whether the district court had in personam jurisdiction over Cal-Cut under Idaho’s long-arm statute. The issue in its simplest form is whether the solicitation of sales via the mail and telephone qualifies as the “transaction of business” under I.C. § 5-514.

Idaho Code § 5-514, in relevant part, reads as follows:

“Any person, firm, company, association or corporation, whether or not a citizen or resident of this state, who in person or through an agent does any of the acts hereinafter enumerated, thereby submits said person, firm, company, association or corporation, and if an individual, his personal representative, to the jurisdiction of the courts of the state as to any cause of action arising from the doing of any of said acts:
(a) The transaction of any business within this state which is hereby defined as the doing of any act for the purpose of realizing pecuniary benefit or accomplishing or attempting to accomplish, transact or enhance the business purpose or objective or any part thereof of such person, firm, company, association or corporation.'” (emphasis added)

The language of I.C. § 5-514(a) is broad. It is designed to provide a forum for in-state residents in a world of increasingly complex commercial transactions. The statute is remedial in nature and should be broadly construed. Doggett v. Electronics Corp. of America, 93 Idaho 26, 454 P.2d 63 (1969).

Viewing the statute from this perspective it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Cal-Cut’s activities in the State of Idaho constitute the “transaction of business” within the meaning of I.C. § 5-514(a). It is true that Cal-Cut does not operate a sales office and did not maintain sales agents in Idaho. The fact that a party being sued does not have physical presence in Idaho, however, does not render I.C. § 5-514(a) inapplicable. Intermountain Business Forms, Inc. v. Shepard Business Forms Co., 96 Idaho 538, 531 P.2d 1183 (1975). This Court has said in the past that by enacting the statute in question the legislature intended to exercise all the jurisdiction available to the State of Idaho under the due process clause of the United States Constitution. Doggett v. Electronics Corp. of America, supra, 93 Idaho at 30, 454 P.2d 63. In modern times that jurisdiction has been expanded to cover contacts with a state that fall far short of a physical presence.

Cal-Cut has entered into commercial transactions with Southern Idaho Pipe & Steel Co. for the last ten years. The trial court also found that Cal-Cut has contracted with other Idaho based corporations for the sale of steel pipe. Cal-Cut compensates for its lack of sales personnel in Idaho by sending advertising circulars directly to potential buyers notifying them of the availability of steel pipe and announcing the terms of the sale. Follow-up communications are then made by telephone and mail to finalize transactions with interested buyers.

The salient feature of this modus operandi for jurisdictional purposes is that Cal-Cut initiates the sales transactions. The present controversy began when Cal-Cut mailed one of its advertising circulars directly to Southern Idaho Pipe and Steel. This method of operation unambiguously qualifies as the “doing of an act for the purpose of realizing pecuniary benefit or accomplishing or attempting to accomplish” its business purposes in the State of Idaho.

[498]*498Such an interpretation is consistent with prior cases that have interpreted I.C. § 5-514(a) and the Illinois long-arm statute after which the Idaho statute is modeled.

The decision of this Court that is most directly on point is Intermountain Business Forms, Inc. v. Shepard Business Forms Co., supra. Suit in that case was initiated by Intermountain Business Forms, an Idaho corporation, against a defendant whose principal place of business was Portland, Oregon. Intermountain had sent a written order to defendant for certain business forms which were to be shipped directly to Intermountain’s customer in Caldwell, Idaho. The goods were allegedly non-conforming and defective so Intermountain revoked its acceptance. Defendant challenged the jurisdiction of the district court’s alleging that it had no place of business in Idaho or sales representatives traveling in Idaho, and further that all business transactions with any residents of Idaho resulted from requests made to defendant at its place of business in Oregon.

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Bluebook (online)
567 P.2d 1246, 98 Idaho 495, 22 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 25, 1977 Ida. LEXIS 414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-idaho-pipe-steel-co-v-cal-cut-pipe-supply-inc-idaho-1977.