Opinion ID: 1131296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: applying burger king, the trial court should have granted the motion to dismiss.

Text: Applying Burger King to the facts asserted here, even viewed in light of the evidentiary presumptions established in Intermountain Business Forms, we conclude that Johnson's motion to dismiss should have been granted. In reaching this conclusion, we review the significance of each of the facts asserted in Houghland's affidavit in opposition to Johnson's motion to dismiss, in the light most favorable to HFI and giving HFI the benefit of all inferences that may reasonably be drawn from them. The fact that HFI's principal place of business was in Idaho has no significance in determining whether Idaho may exercise personal jurisdiction over Johnson. It is Johnson's activities, not HFI's location that must be considered. The fact that Johnson offered his services to HFI to help HFI secure a loan is significant under Burger King only to the extent that Johnson pursued this offer by purposefully availing himself of the privilege of conducting activities within Idaho, thus invoking the benefits and protections of our laws. There is no evidence that Johnson did so. According to Houghland's affidavit, Johnson gained statistical information concerning HFI from various banks in Idaho and visited HFI's Idaho properties to be able more fully to acquaint himself with the security that would be offered for the loan. The acquisition of statistical information concerning HFI has no significance in determining whether Johnson invoked the benefits and protections of the laws of Idaho, which is the ultimate test applied in Burger King. The fact that Johnson visited HFI's Idaho properties to be able more fully to acquaint himself with the security that would be offered for the loan does not justify the exercise of jurisdiction over Johnson. Mere personal presence in Idaho at one time is not sufficient in and of itself to form the basis for the exercise of specific personal jurisdiction over a person who is later served with process outside the state. In Burger King, the Court said that territorial presence frequently will enhance a potential defendant's affiliation with a State and reinforce the reasonable foreseeability of suit there... . 471 U.S. at 476, 105 S.Ct. at 2184, 85 L.Ed.2d at 543. Here, there were not sufficient other activities of Johnson in Idaho to be enhanced by this one isolated event. Houghland also asserted that Johnson received financial statements concerning HFI from both Idaho and Arizona, represented that a loan could be secured to refinance obligations that HFI had in both Idaho and Arizona, stated that security would be taken on HFI's property in both Idaho and Arizona to secure the loan, and alleged that it was agreed that the loan that was to be obtained would be secured by the Idaho property and the Arizona property of HFI. If the loan proposal had in fact proposed to secure the loan with property in Idaho, that would have presented a different case for us to consider. However, the loan proposal proposed to secure the loan only with the assets of Diamond Mine Ice in Arizona. It is this loan proposal that forms the basis for this lawsuit. Considering the attempted exercise of specific personal jurisdiction in the context of this agreement, whether the parties might have agreed to obtain a loan using the Idaho property of HFI as security is irrelevant. The fact that Johnson wrote a letter to representatives of HFI on December 10, 1987, thanking them for showing him their ranch while he was in Idaho and telling them that he would be submitting their loan request as soon as he received the October 31, 1987 year end financial statement does not add any additional support to the exercise of personal jurisdiction over Johnson. It was merely an isolated circumstance and did not indicate that Johnson had invoked the benefits and protections of our laws. The fact that the assets of Diamond Mine Ice that were the proposed collateral in the loan proposal of December 14, 1987, were located in Arizona militates against the exercise of personal jurisdiction by Idaho. We conclude that Johnson did not purposefully avail himself of the privilege of conducting activities within Idaho, thus invoking the benefits and protections of its laws, as required by Burger King.