Wainscott v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co.

351 N.E.2d 466, 47 Ohio St. 2d 133, 1 Ohio Op. 3d 78, 1976 Ohio LEXIS 681
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 21, 1976
DocketNo. 75-863
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 351 N.E.2d 466 (Wainscott v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wainscott v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 351 N.E.2d 466, 47 Ohio St. 2d 133, 1 Ohio Op. 3d 78, 1976 Ohio LEXIS 681 (Ohio 1976).

Opinion

Corrigan, J.

I.

The appellant maintains that the question of what corporate activities in this state' are sufficient to support a finding, that a foreign corporation has the minimum contacts with Ohio necessary to sustain personal jurisdiction therein, is a substantive constitutional question; and, that the personal service of process provisions of Civ. R. 4.2(6) cannot be interpreted tó abridge substantive constitutional rights. Appellant maintains further that,' under the facts existing in the present-case, the decision of the Court of Appeals, subjecting appellant to the in personam jurisdiction of the Ohio courts, violates the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. -■ ’

This court, in Perkins v. Benguet Consolidated Mining Co., supra (158 Ohio St. 145), held that federal due- process neither prohibited nor compelled the ’taking of jurisdiction by state courts in an. action against a foreign corporation; [136]*136where the cause of action did not arise in that state or relate to the corporation’s activities therein. Paragraphs one. and’ two of the syllabus, in Perkins, read:

■ “1. Federal due process neither prohibits nor compels the taking of jurisdiction by the courts of a state in an action against a foreign corporation where the cause did not arise in that state or relate to the corporation’s activities'therein. (Paragraph one of the syllabus in the case of Perkins v. Benquet Consolidated Mining Co., 155 Ohio St. 116, overruled.)

: “2. Where jurisdiction is not limited by statute to causes of action arising within this state, an action on a transitory cause may be maintained in the courts of this state by a nonresident against a foreign corporation doing business here, although the cause did not arise here or relate to' the corporation’s business transacted here.”

The Court of Appeals, in the present case, determined that, since Civ. R. 4.2(6) did not limit service to causes of action arising within this state, the absence of a relationship between the present cause of action and such business as the corporation transacted in Ohio posed no impediment to constitutional service of process on a foreign corporation. The Court of Appeals, therefore, felt it was unnecessary, under Perkins, to decide whether the appellant was transacting business in Ohio. We disagree.

II A.

Civ. R. 4.2(6) provides for service of process “[u]pon a corporation either domestic or foreign: by serving the agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process; or by serving the corporation by certified mail at any of its usual places of business; or by serving an officer or a managing or general agent of the corporation.”

Civ. R. 4.2(6) does not specify what activities within the state of Ohio constitute minimum contact for the purpose of establishing the personal jurisdiction of Ohio courts over foreign corporations. The opinion of the Court of Appeals in this cause states, in effect, that because Civ. R. 4.2(6) does not limit service to causes of action arising [137]*137within this--state and because the rule was-complied.,with, i. e.;, service' upon the corporation or its officers,- managing or general ágents at its usual places of business, there is no constitutional impediment to persona] jurisdiction over the appellant corporation. The clear import of the opinion is to equate .service of process with' in personam jurisdiction:

11 B(l).

Since the landmark decision of the United. -States Supreme Court, in Pennoyer v. Neff (1877), 95 U. S. 714, it has been an established principle that a judgment rendered pursuant to the in personam jurisdiction of a state court over a nonresident is entitled to full faith and credit only if it satisfies the requirements of the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment , to the United States Constitution, and, if such a judgment over a nonresident, does not meet the requirements of the due-process clause, it is not properly enforceable even within the state which rendered it. ... ,

The requirements of the due-process clause can be stated simply: There must be sufficient service of process such as to be reasonably likely to communicate the fact of the commencement of an action to a nonresident; and, there must be some nexus between the forum for the action and the nonresident so as to make it fair and reasonable for the nonresident to appear in that forum and defend the action. McDonald v. Mabee (1917), 243 U. S. 90; International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945), 326 U. S. 310.

In the present case, the sufficiency of process has not been challenged, and it is clear that the serving of notice upon the appellant’s agents in Ohio was reasonably likely to, and did, communicate notice to the appellant of the commencement of the present suit.

The sole issue is whether it is fair and reasonable for the appellant to appear and defend this action in the courts of Ohio.

The question of the in personam jurisdiction of state courts over foreign corporations has troubled courts for many years. The principle established in Pennoyer in dealing with the personal jurisdiction of courts over individ[138]*138uals was that, in'order to give such proceedings any validity, the defendant “* * * must be brought within its [the court’s] jurisdiction by service of process within the state, or by his voluntary appearance.” (95 U. S., at page 733.) This derivation of the rule was explained by Justice Holmes in McDonald v. Mabee, supra (243 U. S. 90, 91), to be based upon the theory that “ [t]he foundation of jurisdiction is physical power * * *.”

The problem raised in dealing with foreign corporations resulted from language by Mr. Chief Justice Taney in Bank of Augusta v. Earle (1839), 38 U. S. 519, 588, to the effect that a corporation can have no legal existence out of the boundaries of the sovereignty by which it is created.

These principles originally developed in cases involving personal jurisdiction over individuals, and were difficult to apply in suits involving foreign corporations. Various fictions arose which spoke in terms of a corporation’s citizenship, domicile, consent or presence. Three principal theories evolved to deal with the corporate form of business which was becoming an increasingly more common method of carrying on economic activity.

11B(Z).

t The first theory rested upon the idea that a foreign corporation can transact business in a state other than the state of its creation, only with the consent, express or implied', of that state. Lafayette Ins. Co. v. French (1855), 59 U. S. 404.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
351 N.E.2d 466, 47 Ohio St. 2d 133, 1 Ohio Op. 3d 78, 1976 Ohio LEXIS 681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wainscott-v-st-louis-san-francisco-ry-co-ohio-1976.