Sunstream Jet Express, Inc. v. International Air Service Co.

512 F. Supp. 1227, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11806
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 1, 1981
DocketNo. 81 C 1436
StatusPublished

This text of 512 F. Supp. 1227 (Sunstream Jet Express, Inc. v. International Air Service Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunstream Jet Express, Inc. v. International Air Service Co., 512 F. Supp. 1227, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11806 (N.D. Ill. 1981).

Opinion

ORDER

BUA, District Judge.

This suit seeking injunctive relief arises out of an alleged breach by the defendant of a lease agreement entered into with plaintiff. Presently before the court is the defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction over the defendant or, in the alternative, for transfer of this casé to the Northern District of California pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404.

Because this court must decide the defendant’s motion solely on the basis of written materials, plaintiff need only show a prima facie case for personal jurisdiction and is entitled to the acceptance of all undenied factual assertions and the resolution of all factual disputes in its favor. Neiman v. Rudolph Wolff & Co., Ltd., 619 F.2d 1189 (7th Cir. 1980).

The affidavit of the defendant’s executive vice-president presents the following facts. The defendant, International Air Service Company, Ltd. (IASCO) is a California corporation with its offices located in Burlingame, California. IASCO maintains no office, telephone listing, or employees in Illinois, and does not conduct any business in Illinois, nor has it done any business in Illinois for many years. IASCO is not registered or qualified to do business in Illinois, [1229]*1229nor does it have an agent in Illinois to accept service of process.

The complaint alleges that the defendant’s removal and replacement of two jet engines from the airframe of the aircraft leased to it by the plaintiff without repair of the original engines constitutes a breach of specific provisions of the lease agreement. The lease itself was entered into by execution of a written agreement prepared by defendant in California and accepted and executed in Illinois by the plaintiff’s president, Norman Lively. '

In November of 1978 and prior to the execution of the written agreement, the plaintiff’s president contacted defendant’s offices by telephone in order to solicit IAS-CO’s services in maintaining and operating the aircraft in question in a chartered cargo run for Emery Air Freight Corporation. After a number of telephone calls regarding this proposal, Lively had the plane flown to California for inspection by IASCO and for further personal discussions regarding IAS-CO’s management of the plane. As a result of these discussions, IASCO later agreed to manage the aircraft.

Subsequent to this management agreement, Lively suggested by telephone to IASCO that IASCO deal directly with Emery by leasing the plane from plaintiff. Discussions also took place with respect to IASCO assisting plaintiff in obtaining financing for the plane in California.

After further numerous discussions on the telephone and in person at the Paris, France Air Show in 1979, a verbal understanding was reached as to IASCO’s lease of the plane from plaintiff. The written lease was prepared by IASCO in accord with the parties’ negotiations and executed by IASCO in California. It was delivered by IASCO to plaintiff’s offices in Illinois where it was executed by plaintiff’s president.

The lease calls for plaintiff to make delivery of the plane to California. The parties also agreed that the defendant would provide the crew for the actual flight from Illinois to California. The defendant did in fact provide the crew, and the crew flew the plane from DuPage County Airport to California. The plaintiff paid for all expenses of delivery except for the crew. Since October, 1979 the defendant has made $50,000 monthly rental payments to the plaintiff “at the office of the lessor” in Illinois pursuant to the lease’s terms. The lease specifically provides that Illinois law will govern the construction of the lease and the rights and duties of the parties thereunder. The lease also provides that the lessee shall provide copies of all maintenance records to the lessor every 60 days and that the lessee shall provide copies of the engine, aircraft and flight logs to the lessor every 180 days. The lease also called for the lessee to provide the lessor with certificates of insurance and receipts for licensing fees required in connection with the aircraft’s operation. Finally, the lease requires the lessee to return the aircraft to DuPage County Airport upon termination or expiration of the lease and to deliver at that time a number of documents including logs, maintenance reports and other records.

Although the facts present a close case, this court believes that the minimum contacts with Illinois necessary to sustain jurisdiction over the defendant are present in this case. See International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958). The defendant made the offer to lease by sending the written agreement to the plaintiff in Illinois to be executed by plaintiff in Illinois and thereby entered into a contract which explicitly invoked the protections of Illinois law and which required ongoing contacts over a period of two years in Illinois. These contacts included delivery of monthly rental payments in excess of one million dollars and delivery of documents regarding maintenance of the aircraft, insurance and license fees to the plaintiff’s office.

All of the defendant’s contacts with Illinois took place in connection with the specific agreement at issue in this suit. In addition, defendant’s agents actually took physical control of the plane’s operation and [1230]*1230operated it in Illinois pursuant to the agreement of the parties.1

In Wisconsin Electrical Manufacturing Co. v. Pennant Products, Inc., 619 F.2d 676 (7th Cir. 1980), as in this case, the only contacts of the non-resident defendant were related to the specific agreement upon which the suit was based. The Court of Appeals stated that

The significant contacts of the out-of-state buyer with the forum state ... are visits by the buyer’s agents to Wisconsin in connection, with the business on which the claim is based. There were two visits

Id. at 677.

As in Wisconsin Electrical Manufacturing and unlike Lakeside Bridge & Steel Co. v. Mountain State Construction Co., 597 F.2d 596 (7th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 907, 100 S.Ct. 1087, 63 L.Ed.2d 325 (1980), the requirement of Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 1239, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958) that “there be some act by which defendant purposefully avails itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum state, thus invoking the benefits and protections of its laws” is satisfied.

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Bluebook (online)
512 F. Supp. 1227, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunstream-jet-express-inc-v-international-air-service-co-ilnd-1981.