Thus, for example, a Delaware company with a principal place of business in New York can be sued for all manner of claims in Delaware and New York, regardless of where the action arose. “General jurisdiction” is the power of the court to adjudicate any claim over which the court has subject-matter jurisdiction against a corporation, regardless of where the claim arose. Two categories of personal jurisdiction arose: general personal jurisdiction and specific personal jurisdiction. Over half a century, judges finetuned the International Shoe criteria. The Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause would protect a corporation from suits in states where the company had no meaningful “contacts, ties, or relations.” The Court ruled that a tribunal’s authority depends upon the corporation’s “minimum contacts” with the state in which the lawsuit was brought such that the maintenance of the action would not “offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” 310 (1945), moved the personal-jurisdiction to a “contacts focused” analysis. Supreme Court decision in International Shoe Company v. Arguably straining to make corporations responsive to lawsuits beyond their home state’s borders, the ground-breaking U.S. Applying that 19 th century standard often resulted in shielding corporations from litigation outside of their home states in light of limitations on “service of process.”Īn otherwise obscure lawsuit over payments into a state’s unemployment compensation fund changed the personal jurisdiction landscape in 1945. Once upon a time, courts had personal jurisdiction over any defendant - human or corporate - which had received within that state’s boundaries proper “service of process,” the initial provision to a defendant of legal papers which notify it of the lawsuit. Supreme Court serves as the ultimate arbiter of the acceptable limits of personal jurisdiction. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that “o State shall … deprive any person” - including corporations - of “property, without due process of law.” Part of the protected “due process” is the right not to be forced to defend yourself in courts in states to which you have no real connection. “Personal jurisdiction” refers to the authority of federal or state judges to issue orders, rulings, and opinions over a case’s litigants. A plaintiff may sue a corporate defendant - for-profit or non-profit - in courts located: (1) in the company’s home state, meaning the state of incorporation or in which the company maintains its principal place of business and (2) in those states where the company systematically served that state’s market for a specific company product or service that gives rise, in-state, to the lawsuit.Īlthough the term “personal jurisdiction” might seem to apply to flesh-and-blood people, the concept has long held far more importance to corporations. Supreme Court decision, a late-December Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, and a New Year’s Eve veto of hostile legislation by New York Governor Kathy Hochul have defined the domain of places where a company may be forced to defend itself in court in clearer terms than ever. Supreme Court in just over a decade, as well as some state-based legal developments, we now have firm guidelines about where all types of companies - from financial services such as banks and insurers, to service providers such as the health care industry, to manufacturers - can be forced to defend themselves. In 2021, thanks to the seventh “personal jurisdiction” opinion decided by the U.S.
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