Opinion ID: 1540447
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Express Statutory Consent to Jurisdiction and Due Process

Text: We are of the opinion that express consent is a valid basis for the exercise of general jurisdiction in the absence of any other basis for the exercise of jurisdiction, i.e. minimum contacts. In particular, we are of the view that after International Shoe, a state still has power to exercise general judicial jurisdiction over a foreign corporation which has expressly consented to the exercise of such jurisdiction. Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. v. Gold Issue Mining & Milling Co., 243 U.S. at 95, 37 S.Ct. at 344. See also Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, §§ 43, 44 (1971). We find support for the continued recognition of express consent, through statutory registration, as a basis for general personal jurisdiction over foreign corporations, in several cases that have been decided by the United States Supreme Court after International Shoe. Not long after its decision in International Shoe, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of an exercise of in personam general jurisdiction with respect to a claim unrelated to the foreign corporation defendant's forum activity. Perkins v. Benguet Consol. Mining Co., 342 U.S. 437, 72 S.Ct. 413, 96 L.Ed. 485, reh'g denied, 343 U.S. 917, 72 S.Ct. 645, 96 L.Ed. 1332 (1952). [9] The Court of Chancery relied upon a portion of the Perkins decision which stated: The corporate activities of a foreign corporation which, under state statute, make it necessary for it to secure a license and to designate a statutory agent upon whom process may be served provide a helpful but not a conclusive test. Sternberg v. O'Neil, 532 A.2d at 996 (quoting Perkins v. Benguet Consol. Mining Co., 342 U.S. at 445, 72 S.Ct. at 418). The context of this quoted language was a search for minimum contacts which would support the legal fiction of implied consent to jurisdiction. It was necessary for the Perkins Court to conduct a minimum contact analysis before it could find an implied consent to the general jurisdiction of Ohio because the foreign corporation was not qualified in Ohio and had not appointed an agent for service of process. Nevertheless, Perkins reaffirmed the principle that there would have been no need to search for minimum contacts to support an implied consent to jurisdiction, if express consent had been given: Today if an authorized representative of a foreign corporation be physically present in the state of the forum and be there engaged in activities appropriate to accepting service and receiving notice on its behalf, we recognize that there is no unfairness in subjecting that corporation to the jurisdiction of the courts of that state through such service of process upon that representative. Perkins v. Benguet Consol. Mining Co., 342 U.S. at 444, 72 S.Ct. at 417. [10] The United States Supreme Court continued to acknowledge that the due process considerations are different when state court jurisdiction is based on implied consent and when such jurisdiction is based on express consent in Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 105 S.Ct. 2174, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985). When jurisdiction is based on implied consent, [t]he Due Process Clause protects an individual's liberty interest in not being subject to the binding judgments of a forum with which he has established no meaningful `contacts, ties, or relations.' Id. at 471-72, 105 S.Ct. at 2181 (citing International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. at 319, 66 S.Ct. at 159). However, immediately after stating this general proposition in Burger King Corp., the Court reiterated its long-standing position that the personal jurisdiction requirement is a waivable right. Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. at 472 n. 14, 105 S.Ct. at 2182 n. 14. [11] Therefore, the Court held that [w]here a forum seeks to assert specific jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant who has not consented to suit there, due process is satisfied if the defendant has minimum contacts with the forum. Id. at 472, 105 S.Ct. at 2182 (emphasis added). Thus, in Burger King Corp., as in Perkins, the Supreme Court found that in the absence of express consent, due process requires minimum contacts for a finding of implied consent to a forum's jurisdiction. Id. Conversely, due process is satisfied by express consent, since express consent constitutes a waiver of all other personal jurisdiction requirements. See id.