Opinion ID: 1745820
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jurisdiction Over Individual Defendants.

Text: The individual defendants, who are officers of the corporate automobile dealerships, urge that, irrespective of whether any basis exists for an Iowa court to exercise in personam jurisdiction over the corporate defendants, they are not subject to suit here under our holding in State ex rel. Miller v. Internal Energy Management Corp., 324 N.W.2d 707 (Iowa 1982). In that case, we concluded that the fiduciary shield doctrine is applicable with respect to determinations involving in personam jurisdiction over corporate officers as well as to the merits of the claims against those officers in their individual capacity. We held in Internal Energy Management that under the fiduciary shield doctrine a nonresident corporate agent is not individually subject to the forum state's in personam jurisdiction if that individual's only contact with the forum is by virtue of his acts as a fiduciary of the corporation. Id. at 710-12. Our review of the papers submitted in support of and in resistance to the motion to dismiss convinces us that the district court's ruling was correct with respect to the individual defendants. The attorney general has failed to demonstrate how any of these persons performed acts in this jurisdiction other than the acts of the corporation with which they were associated.