Opinion ID: 184605
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Jurisdictional Discovery and Dismissal with Prejudice

Text: 44 CBS's last two points on appeal go to rulings of the district court relevant only to CBS's action against CCC. CBS asserts that the district court erroneously denied CBS's request for jurisdictional discovery and dismissed its claim with rather than without prejudice.
45 CBS argues that the district court abused its discretion in dismissing its case against CCC for lack of personal jurisdiction without giving CBS an opportunity to discover evidence that would support such jurisdiction. See, e.g., El-Fadl v. Central Bank of Jordan, 75 F.3d 668, 675-76 (D.C.Cir.1996). CCC defends the district court's denial of discovery on the ground that CBS had failed to dispute CCC's affidavit that it did not solicit business in the District of Columbia and had never made any telephone calls into the District. Because there was no indication before the court that CCC had any contacts at all with the District of Columbia, let alone the minimum contacts necessary for the court, consonant with due process, to exercise personal jurisdiction over it, CCC argues that any discovery would have been inappropriate. 46 We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying CBS jurisdictional discovery. The District's long-arm statute is as far-reaching as due process allows, see Hummel v. Koehler, 458 A.2d 1187, 1190 (D.C.App.1983), meaning that only minimum contacts with the District are necessary to sustain jurisdiction here. See International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); 4 Wright & Miller, § 1067-1067.1 (1988 & Supp.1997). CBS, however, has alleged absolutely nothing, upon either information or belief, to indicate that a court in the District of Columbia might constitutionally assert jurisdiction over CCC, which is incorporated in Montserrat, British West Indies, and has its U.S. operations in Wisconsin. The closest the complaint comes is to say that CCC sells ... advertising time, primarily to U.S. companies, and that CCC made sales calls to U.S. companies nationally and disseminated ... brochures by hand and by the U.S. mail. (pp 8, 33) At the oral argument of this appeal counsel for CBS represented that CCC sold advertising to more than 500 companies and argued that the odds were therefore good that it had solicited at least one company located in the District; but CBS did not make even this cursory (and by no means self-evident) allegation before the district court. These statements are too bare to support even the inference that CCC solicited any companies located in the District of Columbia, much less that it actually did any business in the District--and minimal solicitation does not [331 U.S.App.D.C. 236] generally support jurisdiction anyway. See Volkswagen De Mexico v. Germanischer Lloyd, 768 F.Supp. 1023 (S.D.N.Y.1991) (solicitation of business through advertisements in publications distributed in district does not support jurisdiction under N.Y. long-arm statute); see also Gatewood v. Fiat, S.p.A., 617 F.2d 820 (D.C.Cir.1980) (solicitation of business must be regular in order to support jurisdiction); McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C.Cir.1996) (writing article for national publication obtainable in D.C. did not subject writer to personal jurisdiction in District). But see United States Golf Ass'n v. U.S. Amateur Golf Ass'n, 690 F.Supp. 317 (D.C.N.J.1988) (direct mail solicitation in New Jersey confers personal jurisdiction). In light of CCC's uncontested affidavit, therefore, the court was justified in denying further discovery. 47 CBS argues that it could not have made more specific allegations without jurisdictional discovery and that it never had the opportunity to take such discovery. Further, CBS points to cases in this circuit suggesting that a district court abuses its discretion when it dismisses a case for lack of personal jurisdiction before the plaintiff has had an opportunity for jurisdictional discovery. See, e.g., Edmond v. United States Postal Serv. Gen. Counsel, 949 F.2d 415 (D.C.Cir.1991). As CCC rejoins, however, in order to get jurisdictional discovery a plaintiff must have at least a good faith belief that such discovery will enable it to show that the court has personal jurisdiction over the defendant. See, e.g., Hansen v. Neumueller GmbH, 163 F.R.D. 471, 476 (D.Del.1995) (concluding, after analysis of Rules 26 and 8, that plaintiff who responded to defendant's affidavit with a complete absence of jurisdictional facts had not made threshold showing necessary to get jurisdictional discovery); Poe v. Babcock Int'l, plc, 662 F.Supp. 4, 7 (M.D.Pa.1985) (holding that because plaintiff has met defendants' affidavit evidence with mere speculation, plaintiff's request for ... [jurisdictional] discovery ... must be denied); see also Ellis v. Fortune Seas, Ltd., 175 F.R.D. 308, 312 (S.D.Ind.1997) (citing cases and holding it is reasonable for a court ... to expect the plaintiff to show a colorable basis for jurisdiction before subjecting the defendant to intrusive and burdensome discovery); International Terminal Operating Co., Inc., v. Skibs A/S Hidlefjord, 63 F.R.D. 85 (S.D.N.Y.1973) (holding jurisdictional discovery not appropriate when plaintiff merely hopes to find statements in defendant's affidavit not accurate but has not made counter-allegations in its own affidavit). 48 To be sure, CBS had no obligation to make specific allegations relevant to personal jurisdiction in its complaint because lack of personal jurisdiction is an affirmative defense and so must be raised by the defendant. See Insurance Corp. of Ireland, Ltd. v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 704, 102 S.Ct. 2099, 72 L.Ed.2d 492 (1982); Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(2). CBS's obligation to make some allegations relating to personal jurisdiction arose, therefore, only after CCC had filed its motion to dismiss and supporting affidavit. Even in its response to that motion, however, CBS did not allege any facts remotely suggesting that CCC had any connection to the District of Columbia. 49 On appeal CBS belatedly offers two facts that it claims support the inference that the district court has personal jurisdiction over the defendant: CCC advertises in Caribbean Week, a publication which has Washington, D.C. subscribers, and maintains a Web site accessible to residents of the District (as well as the rest of the world, we assume). Although these facts were not timely pled, CBS argues that the court should take cognizance of them precisely because CBS did not have the benefit of jurisdictional discovery. To do so, however, would be to retry the case upon appeal and then to fault the district court for reaching a different result based upon the different allegations before it. Good order and common sense protest. Therefore, without intimating anything about the legal significance, if any, of CBS's belated factual proffer, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it dismissed CBS's claim against CCC without first granting CBS's request for jurisdictional discovery.
50 Although the district court did not state whether its dismissal of Count I (for [331 U.S.App.D.C. 237] lack of personal jurisdiction over CCC) was with or without prejudice, both parties assume on appeal that, like the court's earlier dismissal of Counts II-XI, it was with prejudice. CBS sees this as an abuse of discretion; CCC denies the same. Neither party is correct because their shared assumption is mistaken. 51 While an involuntary dismissal ordinarily operates as an adjudication upon the merits unless the court otherwise specifies, a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction is specifically exempted from this general rule. Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(b); see also Wright & Miller, § 2373 at 406 (1995) (noting that dismissals that do not reach the merits because of a lack of jurisdiction ... must be considered to be without prejudice); Costello v. United States, 365 U.S. 265, 285, 81 S.Ct. 534, 5 L.Ed.2d 551 (1961) (noting that Rule 41(b) provides that dismissal is adjudication on merits unless for lack of personal jurisdiction, among other reasons). In rare circumstances, a district court may use its inherent power to dismiss with prejudice (as a sanction for misconduct) even a case over which it lacks jurisdiction, and its decision to do so is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See 9 Wright & Miller, § 2369 (1995 & Supp.1997). We cannot infer from the district court's mere silence, however, that it intended to impose such a drastic sanction; nor did the district court advert to any misconduct for which it might have intended such a sanction. We therefore conclude that dismissal of Count I of the complaint was without prejudice.