Civil Procedure – Dannin
IPJ
1. Jurisdiction over the parties – General principles
a. There are three distinct types of jurisdiction over persons
i. In personam – Jurisdiction over the defendant’s person. All of D’s assets can be seized to satisfy the judgment
1. There are two types of in personam jurisdiction
a. General in personam:
i. Appropriate when a persons contacts within a state are substantial and systematic to the effect that he could reasonably foresee being brought to court in that state
ii. This means they have sufficient general contact with the state and can be brought to suit there for any reason, not just relating to the incident at hand or the contacts giving rise to minimum contact IPJ
b. Specific
i. Can be obtained when claims arise out of contact with the state. Cause of action arises from the activities within the state
1. This means that you do not have IPJ over someone in that state for any other cause of action other than those arising from the minimum contacts with the state.
ii. In rem
1. An action upon a property or other thing, not against a person. Property has to be within the state, but the owner does not
2. If you are proceeding in rem – you can seize property currently owned by the defendant to subject them to the jurisdiction of the court
3. Cause of action must be related to the property
iii. Quasi in rem
1. This is different from in rem jurisdiction because here the action does not arise out of the property seized; instead, the thing seized is a pretext for the court to decide the case without any personal jurisdiction. Any judgment affects only the property seized, and cannot be sued upon in any other court. Shaffer took the bite out of in rem jurisdiction, requiring that in rem jurisdiction could not be exercised unless D has such “minimum contacts
2. This is jurisdiction over the property and not the person
b. Factors to consider while looking at IPJ
A) Interest of forum
B) Interest of P in obtaining relief in convenient forum
C) State interest in policy
D) Inconvenience to D
E) Volume of Sales
F) Benefits of the forum activity
2. Jurisdiction over natural persons – under this category there are many different ways to establish jurisdiction over a person. Some of these include:
a. Individual presence
i. Pennoyer v. Neff
1. Main point: personal service of process; role of property in litigation
2.
nning of the minimum contacts test
4. Use these to determine whether you have minimum contacts – which is needed to establish IPJ
a. How many contacts?
b. Quality of these contacts
i. Continued and systematic contacts
ii. Or single isolated contacts
c. Who created the contact?
i. Defendant? Plaintiff? Someone else?
d. Was the defendant aware of the contact?
e. Did they consent to the contact?
The contacts must be such as to make it reasonable, in the context of our federal system, to require a D corporation to defend the suit brought there. An estimate of the inconveniences which would result to the corporation from a trial away from its home is relevant. To require a corp to defend a suit away from home where its contact has been casual or isolated activities has been thought to lay too unreasonable a burden on it. However, even single or occasional acts
