Class 5 - Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

Gives the court power and authority to hear a case. Two types:
Jurisdiction over the subject matter
Jurisdiction over the person

This stems from the right to due process. You can't be held responsible for something that you don't know you're being held responsible. Once you're served with process, you have 28 or 30 days to respond, otherwise you're automatically held responsible.

Long-arm jurisdiciton: the ability of a court to have jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendent. It applies in any of these three situations:
1. company was incoporated in the state
2. company has its principle offices or factory in the state
3. compay was doing business in the state (not necessarily a lot of business, just minimal - enough that the company could reasonably foresee that someone in the state may be harmed)

See case of Killum v Oregon State University
See case of Blimka v My Web Wholesalers (page 36) - even having a web site is considered doing business in the state.

Case of woman in Arizona who read an article about a medical procedure available at Ohio State University. She brought a medical malpractice suit. The advertisement was enough to establish "doing business" in Arizona.

Case in Kansas City, Missouri in which a doctor who had a procedure for weight loss and discussed it on TV on a panel discussion. A woman from KC, Kansas brought a medical malpractice suit. Here, there was no soliciting or advertising, so there was no juridiction for the Kansas courts.

Applying the appropriate state law in Federal Court (pg 40)

In cases of diversity of citizenship. There are no federal tort laws. See case of Erie Railroad v Tompkins. Filed in federal court.

Diversity of citizenship: If you sue someone from a different state, the defendent can request that the case be "removed" to federal court (if the amount in question is at least $75,000). Federal judges are not biased towards citizens of one state. They're appointed for life, not voted or retained, like state judges.

See The Scottsboro Boys. African-american boys in a freight train with white prostitutes. Tried for rape, which was a capital offense in those days. Judge dismissed the case and was then voted out of office. That's political pressure.

See also Mississippi Burning.

In Tompkins, Tompkins wanted NY law. Defendents wanted Penn law because it doesn't require them to pay for damages to trespassers. In Illinois, you have a duty of care to trespassers, but only if you have reason to believe that they're there.

Attractive nuisance: Tank at Devon and Clark.

Applying the appropriate state law in state court

See case of Hughes v. Wal-Mart (hand-out)

Case of gas can purchased in Monroe, Louisiana. Daughter was injured. Filed suit against Wal-Mart, in Arkansas where they are headquartered. Arkansas law holds a distributor liable responsible for defective products. Under Lousiana law, only the manufacturer is liable.

Since everything happened in Louisiana (purchase, damage, medical treatment), the federal court applied the law of Louisiana.

See Miller v Pilgrim's Pride Corp (pg 42). Texas law was applied. Why?

Change of venue. In the interest of justice or fairness, defendant can request a move. Ex: Richard Speck trial was moved from Chicago to Peoria. Drew Peterson, John Wayne Gacy.

Read the Domino's case and Chapter 3. Discover, trial process.