Opinion ID: 1873714
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Minimum Contacts under General Jurisdiction

Text: The record clearly reflects that defendant Wallem established a corporate office in Louisiana and continuously and systematically conducted a regular part of its ship management business therefrom. Consequently, Wallem purposefully established minimum contacts with the forum, availed itself of the benefits and protections of the state's laws and had clear notice that it was subject to suit in Louisiana. See Burger King Corp., 471 U.S. at 476, 105 S.Ct. at 2184; World-Wide Volkswagen, 444 U.S. at 297, 100 S.Ct. at 567. The trial court did not conduct a contradictory evidentiary hearing on the exception to jurisdiction. The record was comprised of pleadings, memoranda, and discovery depositions taken in this matter. If there had been a contradictory evidentiary hearing, plaintiff would have had to prove facts in support of her showing that jurisdiction was proper by a preponderance of the evidence. However, under constitutional and codal principles, when the trial court decides the jurisdictional issue without a contradictory evidentiary hearing, as it has done in the present case, the burden of the non-moving party is relatively slight and allegations of the complaint and all reasonable inferences from the record are to be drawn in favor of the non-moving party. La.C.C.P. art. 925, 930. See also American Greetings Corp. v. Cohn, 839 F.2d 1164 (6th Cir.1988); Poston v. American President Lines, Ltd., 452 F.Supp. 568 (S.D.Fla.1978). As the court of appeal concluded, Wallem's relations with Louisiana were continuous and systematic business ties establishing minimum contacts for purposes of in personam jurisdiction under the International Shoe doctrine. 568 So.2d at 131. The trial court evidently reached the same conclusion in overruling the declinatory exception, although it did not assign written reasons. The major points of the court of appeal reasoning were: (1) The contacts between Wallem and the forum in the present case are more like those in Perkins than in Helicopteros; (2) Wallem established and operated a corporate office in Louisiana; (3) In order to meet crewing needs for the M/V BRASSIE, Wallem had systematic contact with MMC, a New Orleans company that acted as its crewing agent; (4) Decedent Reyes was hired through MMC and, therefore, his employment by Wallem stems directly from Wallem's activity in the forum; (5) Wallem purposefully availed itself of business contacts and relationships with Louisiana and the benefits derived therefrom; and (6) Wallem's activities in Louisiana were of a continuous and systematic nature, sufficient for general jurisdiction to attach. 568 So.2d at 130. On rehearing, the court of appeal limited itself to consideration of the fairness factors and did not alter its initial findings or conclusions with respect to Wallem's purposeful, meaningful contacts with the forum state. Although we agree substantially with the court of appeal on the minimum contacts issue, its opinion fails to mention or to properly emphasize several important facts. When these are given adequate emphasis, the weight accorded the presumption that jurisdiction is reasonable is even greater than that suggested by the appellate court's reasons. 1. Establishment of Wallem's New Orleans Office. Wallem maintained its New Orleans corporate office from which it conducted continuous and systematic operations for five, rather than two, years. The court of appeal found that the New Orleans office had been maintained for only two years. However, the court of appeal's opinion failed to take into account the testimony contained in the deposition of Kelvin Troughton of MMC that Wallem's New Orleans office was maintained for at least five years. For purposes of the exception to jurisdiction, this conflict in the record should be resolved in favor of plaintiff, the non-moving party. American Greetings Corp. v. Cohn, 839 F.2d 1164 (6th Cir. 1988). 2. Management and Support Services. The officers and employees assigned to Wallem's New Orleans office performed substantial, often crucially important, ship management services, and not merely technical or minor functions. Defendant Wallem and the court of appeal characterized these activities as technical. However, this term tends to minimize the actual substantive support activities involved in the New Orleans office's hemispherical responsibilities. Under its contract of management with its client ship owners, Wallem was to provide support and management services including such wide ranging activities as defending claims against the ship owner, maintaining and repairing the vessels, supplying the ship's stores, arranging insurance, and arranging for the proper care of cargo. While purely administrative matters for the world-wide fleet were handled out of its primary office in Hong Kong, substantial field support from the various regional offices, including the New Orleans office, specifically involved travelling to vessels to examine them for any problems they might be encountering including damages or defects in machinery, evaluation of the maintenance programs, making recommendations to the ship owner on management of the vessel, systems analysis of equipment and personnel, and providing crews. 3. The Superintendents. Wallem's superintendents were highly qualified experts in all phases of ship management; their onsite personal attention to the problems of vessels and personnel was essential to Wallem's global operations. The court of appeal found that the office was staffed with four employees of the company, two of whom were management level employees (referred to as superintendents) responsible for implementing instructions from the Hong Kong office. Once again, however, the label is misleading and minimizing. The record reflects that these superintendents physically travelled from their base in New Orleans to Wallem-managed vessels navigating in the western hemisphere to inspect vessels for the need for maintenance or repairs. At least one of these two superintendents, Mr. Arun Tewari, was an engineer who arranged with MMC to crew various vessels, including the M/V BRASSIE. Kelvin Troughton, president and general manager of Marine Consulting and Management, Ltd., testified that Mr. Tewari's main activity was attending to repairs and maintenance of Wallem ships whenever they visited U.S. ports, as well as other duties described above. Further, Patrick Taylor, Wallem's chief executive officer, was at one time a superintendent and before that he was a ship's master for six years. For all these reasons, we conclude that plaintiff has carried her burden of proving continuous and systematic contacts between Wallem Shipmanagement and the forum state. Accordingly, because the aggregate of these contacts establishes a threshold for a general jurisdiction case that is higher and more substantial than that required in a specific jurisdiction case, see Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1067, it stands to reason that the weight of the presumption that jurisdiction is reasonable is heavier here than it would be in a specific jurisdiction case based on a single or only a few purposeful contacts.