Home Isn’t Just Where the Nerve Center Is
An opinion last month issued by a Texas appellate court illustrates a tempting but potentially dangerous doctrinal shortcut: applying a test developed for subject matter jurisdiction to the analysis of general personal jurisdiction. The diversity statute (28 U.S.C. § 1332) defines a corporation’s citizenship as its place of incorporation and its “principal place of business”…
Continue ReadingBeer Halls and Forum Selection Clauses
Homer Simpson once described alcohol as the “cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” The same can be said for forum selection clauses. In the hands of the cognoscenti, these provisions can operate as magical elixirs that completely insulate a litigant from liability. In the hands of those unfamiliar with their intricacies, these…
Continue ReadingRecapping Media Coverage of Mallory
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., a personal jurisdiction case on review from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Robert Mallory, a Virginia resident employed in Virginia and Ohio, sued Norfolk Southern, then based and incorporated in Virginia, in Pennsylvania state court. The case asks the Supreme Court…
Continue ReadingCert Petition Raises Personal Jurisdiction Question in Context of the TVPRA
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) explicitly authorizes extraterritorial application to six predicate offenses (18 U.S.C. § 1596) and creates a private right of action (18 U.S.C. § 1595). Assuming without deciding that § 1595’s civil remedy extends extraterritorially to the same extent as those six predicate offenses, the Ninth Circuit in Ratha v….
Continue ReadingConsent and Personal Jurisdiction: The Mallory Oral Argument
On Tuesday November 8, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway, a case that Reuters called “a sleeper case . . . [that] could be a nightmare for corporations.” The case involves a railway worker, Robert Mallory, a resident of Virginia, who had worked for Norfolk Southern for…
Continue ReadingOral Argument on Personal Jurisdiction Today
The Supreme Court will hear oral argument today in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway, a personal jurisdiction case in which the defendant “consented” to general jurisdiction in Pennsylvania based on a corporate registration statute. Although Mallory itself involves no transnational facts, the case could have important implications for foreign defendants. Pennsylvania’s registration and long-arm statutes,…
Continue ReadingSinger on Personal Jurisdiction Law and Choice-of-Law Doctrine
Professor Joseph Singer has a terrific new article that is well worth reading. In Hobbes & Hanging: Personal Jurisdiction v. Choice of Law, published in the Arizona Law Review, he writes about the contradictions between personal jurisdiction law and choice-of-law doctrine in the United States. He argues that personal jurisdiction law is one-sided and unbalanced…
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Dismisses Another Case Against MBS for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction
Two weeks ago, while King Salman was appointing Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia in an apparent bid to secure him head-of-state immunity in a suit brought by Jamal Khashoggi’s widow, the judge in a different case quietly dismissed another plaintiff’s claims against MBS for lack of personal jurisdiction….
Continue ReadingA Deeply Flawed Personal Jurisdiction Decision in the SDNY
When dealing with forum selection clauses, one of the most important—if unappreciated—distinctions is between inbound and outbound clauses. An inbound clause selects the court where the suit was filed. An outbound clause selects a court that that is not the forum. Another important distinction is the one between exclusive clauses, which stipulate that suit must…
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