Opinion ID: 201739
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Frivolousness of Claim Based on Delica's Product Sales in the United States

Text: 70 Because we do have subject matter jurisdiction over McBee's claim for an injunction against Delica's sales in the United States, 16 we proceed on that claim. 71 We dispose of a preliminary issue: whether there is any required order for deciding the remaining issues. We would ordinarily next reach Delica's defense that the federal district court, sitting in Maine, lacked personal jurisdiction over it. See, e.g., United States v. Swiss Am. Bank, Ltd., 191 F.3d 30, 46 (1st Cir.1999). But we choose to decide this case on much simpler grounds. Although the Supreme Court in Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998), generally barred the practice of hypothetical jurisdiction, we have noted that the rule does not appear to be an absolute one, Parella v. Ret. Bd. of the R.I. Employees' Ret. Sys., 173 F.3d 46, 53-56 (1st Cir.1999), and we have consistently interpreted the rule as applying in its strict form only to issues going to Article III's requirements. See, e.g., Cozza v. Network Assocs., Inc., 362 F.3d 12, 15 (1st Cir.2004); Restoration Pres. Masonry v. Grove Europe Ltd., 325 F.3d 54, 59-60 (1st Cir.2003); United States v. Woods, 210 F.3d 70, 74 n. 2 (1st Cir.2000); Parella, 173 F.3d at 53-56. 72 The requirements of personal jurisdiction are not rooted in Article III, although they do have constitutional resonance through the Due Process clause. See Ins. Corp. of Ir. v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 702-03, 102 S.Ct. 2099, 72 L.Ed.2d 492 (1982). Unlike subject matter jurisdiction under Article III, which goes to the fundamental institutional competence of the court and can be raised sua sponte at any time, personal jurisdiction is an individual liberty right and is therefore waivable; a court cannot raise personal jurisdiction sua sponte. See id. at 702-05, 102 S.Ct. 2099. In Parella, we held that Eleventh Amendment immunity is not subject to the strict form of Steel Co. and can be bypassed in certain cases, stressing the waivability of the immunity and the fact that a court need not raise it sua sponte. See Parella, 173 F.3d at 54-55. As in the sovereign immunity area, we do not wish to force defendants to expend resources on difficult personal jurisdiction issues or courts to reach more difficult issues when there is an exceptionally easy method — on the merits — for the defendant to prevail. See id. at 56. 73 Here, where McBee's claim for an injunction barring Delica's sales in the United States is wholly without merit, and where the personal jurisdiction question is briefed only as a subsidiary issue by both sides, providing us with little guidance, we have the power to pretermit the personal jurisdiction question. 17 We reach these merits now, noting that the questions appealed to us were decided on a summary judgment record and that we may affirm on any ground supported by that record, see, e.g., Cimon v. Gaffney, 401 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir.2005), as well as that the ground for our decision on the merits is closely tied to the facts we used to decide the jurisdictional question. 74 As to the merits, there is no evidence of existing confusion or dilution due to Delica's past sales, since these few sales were all made to McBee's own investigators, who were brought in to assist in this litigation and therefore fully understood McBee's lack of any relationship with Delica. See Millennium Enters., Inc. v. Millennium Music, Inc., 33 F.Supp.2d 907, 911 (D.Or.1999) (gravamen of unfair competition claim is whether defendant's actions have created confusion; sale to plaintiff's agent could not have created any). There is no evidence of any other sales, nor any evidence that Delica has any desire to sell into the United States in the future. All the evidence, in fact, is to the contrary. Thus, there is no justification for injunctive relief, and summary judgment must enter for Delica on this claim. 75 Absent any viable federal claim, the district court's dismissal of all of McBee's pendent state law claims (without prejudice to their being refiled in state court) was fully appropriate and was not an abuse of discretion — McBee has not argued otherwise. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c); González-De-Blasini v. Family Dep't, 377 F.3d 81, 89 (1st Cir.2004). We need not reach Delica's laches or collateral estoppel arguments.