Superior Supply Co. v. Associated Pipe & Supply

499 So. 2d 558, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 8454
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 3, 1986
DocketNo. 18270-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 499 So. 2d 558 (Superior Supply Co. v. Associated Pipe & Supply) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Superior Supply Co. v. Associated Pipe & Supply, 499 So. 2d 558, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 8454 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

FRED W. JONES, Jr., Judge.

Plaintiff, Superior Supply Company (“Superior” — a Texas corporation with its principal place of business in Shreveport), appealed a judgment sustaining an exception of lack of in personam jurisdiction over defendant, Associated Pipe & Supply (“Associated” — a Colorado corporation). Find[559]*559ing no error in the trial court’s ruling, we affirm.

According to the somewhat meager record, on three occasions in 1985 Associated sent an employee to Shreveport allegedly to solicit business. Although there is no evidence that such solicitation led to any sales, Associated admitted they were “transacting business” within the state on these three occasions. The record is devoid of any other indication of business activity in Louisiana. The last trip to Shreveport by an Associated employee was on April 2, 1985.

Over two months later, on June 17, 1985, Superior telephoned Associated at its Colorado offices and ordered 6,710 feet of steel casing. Superior quickly resold the casing and requested Associated ship it to the transferee at a well site in Zapata County, Texas. Associated shipped the casing from its warehouse in Houston, Texas (where transfer of title occurred) to the well site in Zapata County. In July, the transferee discovered the casing was defective and made a claim against Superior. Superior reimbursed the transferee for the defective casing ($54,006.43) and then sued Associated for the same amount.

The trial court found there were not “sufficient minimal contacts arising out of” Associated’s activities in Louisiana for the state to confer personal jurisdiction and still meet the constitutional due process requirements as set forth in International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 220, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); and McGee v. International Life Insurance Co., 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957).

Superior appealed, noting several “issues”. Essentially it contends the lower court erred in sustaining the exception because the Louisiana Long Arm Statute is applicable and the facts meet due process requirements.

The threshold issue presented in this appeal is the reach of the Louisiana Long Arm Statute (La.R.S. 13:3201) which provides in part:

A court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident, who acts directly or by an agent, as to a cause of action arising from any one of the following activities performed by the nonresident:
(1) Transacting any business in this state.
(2) Contracting to supply services or things in this state.
(3) Causing injury or damage by an offense or quasi-offense committed through an act or omission in this state.
(4) Causing injury or damage in this state by an offense or quasi-offense committed through an act or omission outside of this state if he regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered in this state, (emphasis added).
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There are two prongs to the well-recognized test which must be met before a state long-arm statute can confer jurisdiction over a nonresident. First, the nonresident must be amenable to service under the statute and second, conferring jurisdiction over the nonresident must be consistent with the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Due process requires that a nonresident have “sufficient minimal contacts” with the forum state such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra; McGee v. International Life Insurance Co., supra.

Our first inquiry is whether Associated’s particular activity is encompassed by the Louisiana Long Arm Statute, i.e., is Associated amenable to service under the statute?

Louisiana Long Arm Statute

The Louisiana Long Arm Statute permits the exercise of in personam jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant to the full limits of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment in cases where the suit [560]*560arises from contacts of the nonresident with the state of Louisiana. Runnels v. TMSI Contractors, Inc., 764 F.2d 417 (5 Cir.1985); Courtesy Ford, Inc. v. Weatherly, 485 So.2d 93 (La.App.2d Cir.1986); Rush v. Matson Navigation Co., 221 So.2d 265 (La.App.2d Cir.1969).

In Rush we held that one of the factors in La.R.S. 13:3201 must apply and even then jurisdiction is conferred only if the cause of action arose out of one of these jurisdictional bases. Indeed, La.R.S. 13:3202 specifically provides that when personal jurisdiction over a nonresident is based solely upon La.R.S. 13:3201, only a cause of action arising from acts or omissions enumerated therein may be asserted against him.

In Rush we found no nexus between plaintiff’s cause of action and defendant’s business activities in Louisiana. See also Gertler v. Gondola Ski Shop, Inc., 384 So.2d 856 (La.App. 4th Cir.1980), writ denied, 392 So.2d 682 (La.1980). There, the foreign corporation did conduct some business in Louisiana, but plaintiff’s cause of action arose when she was injured in Colorado using defendant’s defective ski equipment which had been purchased in Colorado. Plaintiff’s cause of action did not arise from defendant’s business activities in Louisiana — the cause arose out of Colorado activities and the court declined to find jurisdiction over the defendant by Louisiana courts.

Plaintiff Superior argues that Associated’s admission of “transacting business” is sufficient to confer jurisdiction under Louisiana’s Long Arm Statute. It ignores the “arising from” language in the first sentence of the statute.

Superior relies heavily upon Pedelahore v. Astropark, Inc., 745 F.2d 346 (5 Cir.1984) in asserting that there need not be a causal relationship between the nonresident’s contacts with Louisiana and the incident giving rise to the cause of action. In Pedelahore a Louisiana resident was injured at a Texas amusement park which had directed advertising at Louisiana, appointed a sales representative for Louisiana, and Louisiana patrons were second in number only to Texas patrons at the park. The court noted, at page 384, that “under the Louisiana long-arm statute there need not be a causal relationship between the non-resident’s contacts within the state and the incident giving rise to the action.” We believe the U.S. 5th Circuit misinterpreted Louisiana case law. See Rush, supra; Alba v. Riviere, 457 So.2d 33 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984), writ denied, 462 So.2d 194 (La.1984).

In Farnham v. Bristow Helicopters, Inc., 776 F.2d 535

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Related

Superior Supply v. Assoc. Pipe & Supply
515 So. 2d 790 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1987)
Superior Supply Co. v. Associated Pipe & Supply Co.
503 So. 2d 1009 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1987)

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499 So. 2d 558, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 8454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/superior-supply-co-v-associated-pipe-supply-lactapp-1986.