CIVIL PROCEDURE
Professor Riccio
JURISDICTION
A. IN PERSOMAN JURISDICTION
Federal Jurisdiction and Venue
– Before a federal district court may hear a plaintiff’s claim, it must satisfy three prerequisites:
o 1) jurisdiction over persons or things (i.e. the court’s ability to drag an individual into its district)
o 2) subject matter jurisdiction (the court’s ability to hear a particular kind of claim)
o 3) venue
– every cause of action sued upon in a case must satisfy one of the kinds of jurisdiction over persons or things, as well as some kind of subject matter jurisdiction. However, requirements of venue apply only to claims brought by the plaintiff
Jurisdiction Over Persons or Things
Three kinds:
1) Personal jurisdiction (normal form of action against an individual, company, or other entity – aka in personam jurisdiction)
2) Quasi In Rem Jurisdiction – actions in the nature of the attachment
3) In Rem Jurisdiction – where an object or piece of land is the subject of the lawsuit
-Every count in a case must satisfy one or another of these jurisdictional standards
– typical remedy without any type of jurisdiction is to dismiss the claim
Requirements for personal jurisdiction
Two elements play important roles in determining the requirements for personal jurisdiction:
– notions of fair play – as developed under Due Process Provisions of Constitution
o an evaluation of the contacts that exist between the defendant and the state where the court sits
o an evaluation of the quality of notice of the suit that the defendant received
– state limitations on the authority of the state courts to exercise personal jurisdiction
Means of Satisfaction:
o The defendant’s consent to jurisdiction
o Service of process on the defendant within the territorial confines of a state in which the district court sits; or
o Service of process on a non-consenting defendant not within a state, when such service is fair because the defendant had sufficient “contacts” with the state
Consent to Jurisdiction
– if a party consents to jurisdiction, the due process requirement of fairness is satisfied – consent may occur in a variety of ways
– Examples:
o By contract – parties prior to litigation consent to the jurisdiction of
r the PJ to be constitutional, the defendant has to have contacts with the state in which the court sits of such a quality and nature that exercise of PJ would not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.
– Once min contacts have been identified, the court will then evaluate the reasonableness of an assertion of PJ over the defendant by considering:
o Magnitude of Defendant’s contacts – greater the defendants contacts, the more likely the court will sustain PJ ($ value of defendant’s activity or nature and size of wrong D committed)
o Purposefulness of Defendant’s contacts – if have deliberately engaged in activity within a state
o Systematic and Continuous Nature of D’s Contacts – longer the contacts endure, the greater they can sustain P
Relation between D’s contacts and Cause of Action – if contacts are closely related to C of A more likely that jurisdiction based on contacts will be upheld
