TV Azteca v. Ruiz

490 S.W.3d 29, 44 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1443, 59 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 391, 2016 Tex. LEXIS 180, 2016 WL 766927
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 26, 2016
DocketNo. 14-0186
StatusPublished
Cited by190 cases

This text of 490 S.W.3d 29 (TV Azteca v. Ruiz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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TV Azteca v. Ruiz, 490 S.W.3d 29, 44 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1443, 59 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 391, 2016 Tex. LEXIS 180, 2016 WL 766927 (Tex. 2016).

Opinion

JUSTICE BOYD

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an interlocutory appeal from the denial of Petitioners’ special appearances. Petitioners are Mexican citizens who broadcast television programs on over-the-air signals that originate in Mexico but travel into parts of Texas. Respondents are Texas residents who allege Petitioners defamed them in some of those programs. We hold that the allegations and evidence that Petitioners harmed Texas residents in Texas, Petitioners’ broadcasts were viewable in Texas, and Petitioners knew Texans could watch the programs in Texas are insufficient to establish that Petitioners purposefully availed themselves of the benefits of conducting activities in Texas. However, that evidence, taken together with evidence that Petitioners exploited the Texas market to capitalize on the broadcasts that traveled into Texas, does [35]*35establish purposeful availment and provides a constitutional basis for exercising jurisdiction over Petitioners in this case. Because Respondents’ claims arise from and relate to those broadcasts, and the exercise of jurisdiction comports with traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice, we affirm the court of appeals’ judgment.

I.

Background

Mexican recording artist Gloria de Los Angeles Trevino Ruiz, popularly known as Gloria Trevi (and sometimes referred to as “Mexico’s Madonna”), now lives in Texas. Near the height of Trevino’s fame in the late 1990s, she was accused of luring underage girls into sexual relationships with her manager. Authorities arrested Trevino and her manager in Brazil on charges of sexual assault and kidnapping. Trevino spent nearly five years in prisons in Brazil and Mexico, but a Mexican judge ultimately found her not guilty and dismissed all charges in 2004.

After her acquittal, Trevino moved to McAllen, Texas, and later married Armando Gomez, a Mexican attorney who had defended her in the criminal proceedings. In the late 2000s, as the ten-year anniversary of the scandal approached, various Mexican media outlets ran stories discussing the events and Trevino’s activities following her acquittal. In 2009, Trevino, acting individually and on behalf of her minor son, and Gomez (collectively, Trevino) 1 filed this lawsuit in Hidalgo County, alleging that several media defendants defamed them in their broadcasts.2 Trevino asserts that she and others viewed the defamatory programs on their televisions in Texas.

The relevant defendants are two Mexican television broadcasting companies, TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., and Publimax, S.A.B. de C.V., and a Mexican citizen, Patricia Chapoy, a news anchor and producer for TV Azteca. Trevino alleges that TV Azteca, Publimax, and Chapoy (collectively, Petitioners) defamed her on several occasions, primarily in stories on a television program called Ventaneando, a Spanish-language entertainment news program that TV Azteca produced, Chapoy hosted, and Publimax aired on television stations affiliated with TV Azteca. Petitioners filed special appearances challenging the trial court’s jurisdiction over them. The trial court denied the special appearances, and this interlocutory appeal followed.3 The [36]*36court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s ■denial of the special appearances, — S.W.3d -, 2014 WL 346031, and we granted review to consider, as a matter of first impression in this Court, whether a television broadcast that originates outside Texas but travels into the state can support personal jurisdiction over the broadcaster in Texas.

II.

Jurisdictional Requirements

We begin by summarizing the well-established limits on a trial court’s jurisdiction. A court has power to decide a case only if it has “both subject matter jurisdiction over the controversy and personal jurisdiction over the parties.” Spir Star AG v. Kimich, 310 S.W.3d 868, 871 (Tex.2010). Subject matter jurisdiction involves a court’s “power to hear a particular type of suit,” while personal jurisdiction “concerns the court’s power to bind a particular person or party.” CSR Ltd. v. Link, 925 S.W.2d 591, 594 (Tex.1996). Petitioners argue that Texas courts lack personal jurisdiction over them.

Courts have personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant when the state’s long-arm. statute permits such jurisdiction and the exercise of jurisdiction is consistent with federal and state due-process guarantees. Moncrief Oil Int’l Inc. v. OAO Gazprom, 414 S.W.3d 142, 149 (Tex. 2013). The Texas long-arm statute broadly allows courts to exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident who “commits a tort in whole or in part in this state.” Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem. Code § 17.042(2). Because this statute reaches “as far as the federal constitutional requirements for due process will allow,” Texas courts may exercise jurisdiction over a nonresident so long as doing so “comports with federal due process limitations.” Spir Star, 310 S.W.3d at 872 (quoting Am. Type Culture Collection, Inc. v. Coleman, 83 S.W.3d 801, 806 (Tex.2002)).

Consistent with federal due process protections, a state court can exercise jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant only if (1) the defendant has established “minimum contacts” with the state and (2) the exercise of jurisdiction comports with “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” Int’l Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); see Moncrief Oil, 414 S.W.3d at 150. We will address both requirements in turn, in light of the allegations and evidence in this case.4

[37]*37III.

Minimum Contacts

The minimum-contacts requirement protects due-process rights by permitting a state to exercise jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant only when the defendant “could reasonably anticipate being haled into court there.” Moncrief Oil, 414 S.W.3d at 152. Minimum contacts may create either general or specific personal jurisdiction. Id. at 150. A court has general jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant whose “affiliations with the State are so ‘continuous and systematic’ as to render [it] essentially at home in the forum State.” Daimler v. Bauman, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 746, 754, 187 L.Ed.2d 624 (2014) (quoting Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown, 564 U.S. 915, 919, 131 S.Ct. 2846, 180 L.Ed.2d 796 (2011)). This test requires “substantial activities within the forum” and presents “a more demanding minimum contacts analysis than for specific jurisdiction.” BMC Software, 83 S.W.3d at 797. When a court has general jurisdiction over a nonresident, it may exercise jurisdiction “even if the cause of action did not arise from activities performed in the forum state.” Spir Star, 310 S.W.3d at 872.

By contrast, courts may exercise specific jurisdiction when the defendant’s forum contacts are “isolated or sporadic,” as opposed to “continuous and systematic,” but only if the plaintiffs cause of action arises from or relates to those contacts. Id. at 872-73 (quoting 4 ChaRles Alan Weight & Aethuk R. Mil-lee, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1067.5 (3d ed.2002)); see also Moncrief Oil,

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490 S.W.3d 29, 44 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1443, 59 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 391, 2016 Tex. LEXIS 180, 2016 WL 766927, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tv-azteca-v-ruiz-tex-2016.