Case Title: Dall v. Kaylor

Citation: 163 Vt 274, 658 A.2d 78

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1995-02-17T00:00:00Z

Document:
DALL_V_KAYLOR.94-143; 163 Vt 274; 658 A.2d 78

[Filed 17-Feb-1995]

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports. 
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any errors in
order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press. 


                                 No. 94-143


Claudia R. Dall                                   Supreme Court

                                                  On Appeal from
     v.                                            Rutland Superior Court

Georgina N. Kaylor, et al.                        November Term, 1994



David A. Jenkins, J.

Beth Robinson of Langrock Sperry & Wool, Middlebury, for plaintiff-appellant

Michael S. Brow and Amy E. Sylvester of Sylvester & Maley, Inc., Burlington,
for defendants- appellees 



PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.


     MORSE, J.   Plaintiff Dall appeals the trial court's dismissal of her
claim for lack of personal jurisdiction.  Dall, a Vermont resident, brought
suit in Chittenden Superior Court against Maryland defendants for breach of
warranty arising from the purchase of a Hanoverian horse.  Defendant Baron, a
Maryland resident and owner of the horse, hired defendants Kaylor and
Westphalian Pride Farm to sell it.  Defendant Kaylor, d/b/a Westphalian Pride
Farm, is a horse breeder and trainer in Maryland.  Defendant Westphalian
Pride Farm holds itself out as a breeder and developer of "world-class"
Hanoverian horses.  The sole issue is whether defendants' contacts with
Vermont were sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction in Vermont. The trial
court granted defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.  We
reverse. 

     Dall read Westphalian Pride Farm's classified advertisement in a
nationally circulated publication, Chronicle of the Horse.  Westphalian Pride
Farm had placed advertisements in Chronicle of the Horse over a hundred times
since 1990.  In September 1992, Dall visited 

 

Westphalian Pride Farm in Maryland to view the horses available for sale. 
Upon her return to Vermont, she communicated with defendants by mail and
telephone and ultimately agreed to purchase a horse.  In October 1992, Dall
mailed a check to defendants as payment for the horse. Defendant Kaylor
mailed Dall the completed bill of sale for the horse, a transfer of ownership
form and an application for membership in the American Hanoverian Society. 

     The horse sustained injuries during its trip to Vermont.  A
veterinarian's treatment of these injuries led to the discovery that the
horse suffered from congenital and chronic bone disease in his rear legs. 

     Vermont's long-arm statute, 12 V.S.A.  913(b), confers jurisdiction
over nonresident defendants to the full extent permitted by the Due Process
Clause.  Northern Aircraft, Inc. v. Reed, 154 Vt. 36, 40, 572 A.2d 1382, 1385
(1990); see also Reporter's Notes, V.R.C.P. 4(e) (statute allowing personal
service outside state reaches to "outer limits permitted by the due process
clause").  The Due Process Clause "protects an individual's liberty interest
in not being subject to the binding judgments" of a foreign state with which
the individual has no meaningful contacts.  Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz ,