Case ID: mich-app_124/html/0253-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

GARDNER v McDONAGH
    Docket No. 61938.
    Submitted December 13,1982, at Detroit.
    Decided February 18, 1983.
    Gladys K. Ford and Janice M. Gardner, Michigan residents, were seriously injured in an automobile accident while on a tour of Ireland. The vehicle involved, which was owned by an Irish firm, H. F. Murray, Ltd., doing business as Flannery’s Car Hire, had been leased by Christopher Murray, a Michigan resident, and was being operated by Gertrude McDonagh, also a Michigan resident, at the time of the accident. Ford and Gardner commenced an action against Gertrude McDonagh in Macomb Circuit Court. Ford subsequently died, and Gardner, individually and as personal representative of the estate of Gladys K. Ford, continued the action. H. F. Murray, Ltd., doing business as Flannery’s Car Hire, and Lloyds of London, the insurer of the car, were added as defendants. Defendant H. F. Murray, Ltd., filed a motion for accelerated judgment, attacking the jurisdiction of the court on the ground that H. F. Murray, Ltd., had no legal or personal minimum jurisdictional contacts with the State of Michigan. The court, Kenneth N. Sanborn, J., denied the motion. Defendant H. F. Murray, Ltd., appeals by leave granted. Held:
    
    The trial court erred in failing to grant accelerated judgment to defendant H. F. Murray, Ltd. The plaintiff failed to carry her burden of establishing the facts necessary to create personal jurisdiction over defendant H. F. Murray, Ltd.
    Reversed and remanded.
    Courts — Jurisdiction — Burden of Proof — Accelerated Judgment.
    It was error for a trial court to deny a defendant’s motion for accelerated judgment in which the court’s jurisdiction was attacked on the ground that the defendant had no legal or personal minimum jurisdictional contacts with the State of Michigan where the plaintiff failed to carry her burden of establishing the facts necessary to create personal jurisdiction over the defendant (GCR 1963,116.1[1]).
    
      Reference for Points in Headnote 20 Am Jur 2d, Courts §§ 28, 103,105.
    
      
      Romulus Di Teodore, and Kenneth N. Kramer (of counsel), for plaintiff.
    
      Plunkett, Cooney, Rutt, Watters, Stanczyk & Pedersen, P.C. (by John P. Jacobs), for defendants.
    Before: Danhof, C.J., and J. H. Gillis and H. E. Deming, JJ.
    
      
      Circuit judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment.
    
   Per Curiam.

Defendant, H. F. Murray, Ltd., doing business as Flannery’s Car Hire (hereinafter H. F. Murray), appeals by leave granted from the circuit court’s order denying its motion for accelerated judgment. GCR 1963, 116.1(1).

Upon a review of the record and briefs, including the affidavits submitted by the parties, we find that the plaintiff failed to carry her burden of establishing the facts necessary to create personal jurisdiction over defendant H. F. Murray. International Shoe Co v Washington, 326 US 310; 66 S Ct 154; 90 L Ed 95 (1945); Khalaf v Bankers & Shippers Ins Co, 404 Mich 134; 273 NW2d 811 (1978); Avery v American Honda Motor Car Co, 120 Mich App 222; 327 NW2d 447 (1982); MCL 600.715; MSA 27A.715.

The trial court erred in failing to grant accelerated judgment to defendant H. F. Murray.

Reversed and remanded.