‘Personal jurisdiction’ a source of power
As a New Mexico businessman, you might decide you really ought to have a web presence. Customers expect it, after all. And if you’re in the business of selling products that can be shipped to faraway places, maybe it makes sense to use the website to sell to people who never set foot in New Mexico.
But what happens if you sell to a customer in Maine who then claims to have suffered some form of injury? Can that customer sue you in Maine court? The short answer, as any lawyer can tell you, is yes, anybody can sue you anywhere at any time for any reason. The more pertinent question is whether you could get such a lawsuit dismissed on the ground that the Maine court lacks personal jurisdiction over you.
“Personal jurisdiction” is one of the most technical concepts in the law, but its basic meaning is simplicity itself. It means power. Asking whether a court has personal jurisdiction over a given litigant is the same as asking whether it has the power to force that litigant to do things the litigant doesn’t want to do. If a court can oblige you to hire a lawyer, divulge private information, and submit to its decisions, it’s exercising personal jurisdiction over you.
Each of the 50 states has its own court system, and D.C. makes 51. That map of judicial fiefdoms is overlaid by a network of 94 federal judicial districts. If you’re in business anywhere in the country, some of those 145 courts will have the power to order you around. But not, perhaps, all of them.
Recently, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears federal cases from New Mexico and five neighboring states, was faced with the question as to whether an Alabama manufacturer of airplane parts could be sued in Colorado. Continental Motors Inc., headquartered in Mobile, made the magnetos installed on a single-engine Cirrus SR22. Through its website, it also supplied the service manuals and bulletins on which the plane’s Coloradobased mechanics relied when maintaining the magnetos.
On Jan. 9, 2014, some 17,000 feet above Idaho, the plane’s engine started vibrating severely and partially lost power. The pilot tried to bring it into the Pocatello airport but was forced to land in an open field. Fortunately, both pilot and passenger walked away with only minor injuries. But the plane was a total loss. Following investigation, suspicion fell on the magnetos.
An Illinois-based insurance company paid the owner’s claim, and by doing so acquired the owner’s right to sue anybody it regarded as responsible for the crash. It targeted Continental Motors. But after it decided whom to sue, the next question was where. Illinois, Alabama, Idaho, Colorado? The company chose to file in Colorado, presumably because that’s where the mechanics worked on the magnetos.
Continental Motors had no desire to defend an expensive lawsuit in Denver. Doing so would have required it to hire Colorado lawyers and fly company employees and experts across the country to participate in discovery and trial. Then, too, the company might well have preferred a hometown jury. It moved to dismiss the case, asserting that the Colorado court lacked personal jurisdiction over it. (Dismissal on jurisdictional grounds doesn’t always end litigation. Generally, a suit dismissed