Wissmiller v. Lincoln Trail Motosports, Inc.

552 N.E.2d 295, 195 Ill. App. 3d 399, 141 Ill. Dec. 927, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 291
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 8, 1990
Docket4-89-0521
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 552 N.E.2d 295 (Wissmiller v. Lincoln Trail Motosports, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wissmiller v. Lincoln Trail Motosports, Inc., 552 N.E.2d 295, 195 Ill. App. 3d 399, 141 Ill. Dec. 927, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 291 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE KNECHT

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Honda R&D Company, Ltd. (R&D), appeals a circuit court order which overruled its special and limited appearance for the purpose of objecting to in personam jurisdiction. R&D contends it lacks sufficient minimum contacts with Illinois to justify the exercise of long-arm jurisdiction over it, and in any event, it was not properly served with process.

This litigation arose out of an accident which occurred on August 9, 1986, during an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) race at the Clark County Fair. While the plaintiff, Charles Wissmiller, was riding on a three-wheel, Honda model 250R all-terrain cycle, he allegedly fell or was thrown from the vehicle and sustained permanently disabling injuries. On December 24, 1987, Wissmiller filed a complaint against numerous defendants. His complaint was subsequently amended to allege liability on the part of American Honda Motor Company, Inc. (American Honda), and Honda Motor Company, Ltd. (Honda), which is American Honda’s parent company. The counts directed to Honda and American Honda alleged a proximate cause of Wissmiller’s injuries was design defects in the ATV which he was riding at the time of the accident.

On August 5, 1988, Wissmiller was granted leave to further amend his complaint by adding a seventh count, which named R&D as an additional defendant. In this count, Wissmiller again alleged the accident in which he was injured was attributable to design defects in the Honda model 250R ATV. On October 3, 1988, a summons directed to R&D was served on CT Corporation System (CT), which is American Honda’s registered agent in Illinois. On the same day, CT returned this summons to Wissmiller’s attorney with a statement to the effect that (1) it was not the registered statutory agent for R&D in Illinois, and (2) the Secretary of State had “no listing for this entity being either incorporated or qualified in Illinois as to date.” On November 3, 1988, Wissmiller moved for a default judgment against R&D, and the court allowed this motion on November 9,1988.

On December 8, 1988, R&D entered a special and limited appearance and filed a motion to quash service of process pursuant to section 2 — 301(a) of the Code of Civil Procedure (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110, par. 2—301(a)). This motion alleged Wissmiller’s attempt to serve R&D by serving process on CT was ineffective, because American Honda is not a de facto agent of R&D for the purpose of service of process. Also, R&D alleged Wissmiller’s attempted service of process was ineffective because process was not served upon it through Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and because the summons and complaint were not translated into Japanese. R&D asserted that under the “Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters,” better known as the Hague Convention (opened for signature November 15, 1965, 20 U.S.T. 361-73, T.I.A.S. No. 6638, 658 U.N.T.S. 163 (reprinted in 28 U.S.C.A. Fed. R. Civ. P. 4, at 130-45 (West Supp. 1989); VIII Martin-dale-Hubbell Law Directory, Pt. VII, Selected International Conventions, at 1-9 (1987))), both of these requirements had to be fulfilled in order for process to be validly served upon it. Alternatively, R&D contended it did not have sufficient minimum contacts with Illinois to permit the exercise of “long-arm” jurisdiction over it.

In an order entered May 25, 1989, the circuit court set aside the default judgment which it had previously entered against R&D, but overruled R&D’s special and limited appearance. On July 10, 1989, this court allowed R&D’s motion for leave to appeal under Supreme Court Rule 306 (107 Ill. 2d R. 306) from the circuit court order which overruled its special and limited appearance.

We conclude the circuit court’s July 10, 1989, order must be reversed because R&D was not properly served with process. R&D makes a two-pronged attack on the purported service of process upon it. First, it argues the purported service of process was not valid under Illinois law because there is no evidence (1) American Honda, on whose agent the process directed to R&D was served, exercises any control over R&D, or (2) such service would have made R&D aware of the pendency of this action. R&D asserts it is doubtful one sister corporation could ever control the affairs of another sister corporation, and therefore, service of process on a sister corporation as agent of another sister corporation can never be proper as a matter of law. R&D notes in Geick v. American Honda Motor Co. (C.D. Ill. 1987), 117 F.R.D. 123, the court held even American Honda and Honda are not so closely related that service of process on American Honda constitutes effective service on Honda. R&D further observes CT returned to Wissmiller’s attorney and to the trial court the process directed to R&D which was served upon CT in its capacity of registered agent for American Honda.

Second, R&D contends the purported service of process upon it was invalid because of nonconformity to the procedures prescribed by the Hague Convention. R&D implies the Hague Convention sets forth the exclusive methods for service of process upon parties having their principal places of business in signatory nations other than the forum nation. R&D contends the purported service of process upon it violated the terms of the Convention because process was not submitted to Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs for service upon R&D and because the documents served were not translated into Japanese.

Wissmiller argues the Hague Convention is inapplicable to this case, and R&D was properly served with process by means of substituted service in Illinois. Wissmiller further maintains since R&D did not file a report of the proceedings at the May 25, 1989, hearing at which the circuit court determined R&D was properly served with process, this court must presume (1) in making that ruling, the circuit court acted within its discretion, and (2) the circuit court’s judgment conforms to the law and has a sufficient factual basis.

There appear to be no Illinois cases dealing with the question of whether a subsidiary corporation may be served with process by means of service on another corporation which is a subsidiary of a common parent. However, several cases do address the question of whether a parent corporation may be served with process through service on a subsidiary. In such cases, the focus is on whether the parent corporation is “doing business” in Illinois, which in turn depends on the relationship between the parent and the subsidiary. Among the relevant factors in determining whether the parent-subsidiary relationship establishes the parent is doing business in Illinois are (1) the control exercised by the parent over the subsidiary, (2) obligations of the subsidiary to service the parent’s products, (3) inclusion of the subsidiary’s name and address in the parent’s advertising, (4) joint sponsorship of promotional activities, (5) interlocking directorships, (6) the sites of meeting of the subsidiary’s board of directors, and (7) whether the subsidiary is authorized to prosecute trademark infringement suits in the parent’s name. Maunder v. DeHavilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd. (1984), 102 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
552 N.E.2d 295, 195 Ill. App. 3d 399, 141 Ill. Dec. 927, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wissmiller-v-lincoln-trail-motosports-inc-illappct-1990.