Opinion ID: 411165
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Alleged Contract.

Text: 35 For the proposition that her alleged contract with the Bar alone will support suit in Louisiana, Burstein relies on Product Promotions, Inc. v. Cousteau, 495 F.2d 483 (5th Cir.1974), and McGee v. International Life Insurance Co., 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957). We believe that neither case compels a conclusion in her favor. 36 In Cousteau, the Texas plaintiff had visited the defendant in France, and they subsequently concluded a contract by mail. The defendant agreed to test a product of the plaintiff's and film the tests, with the results and film to be shipped to the plaintiff in Texas. The plaintiff began to market the items with advertising claiming that the defendant's alleged principal, Jacques Cousteau, had endorsed them. The defendant persuaded the plaintiff's retailer to stop selling them because of the allegedly unauthorized advertising; the plaintiff sued the defendant in federal court in Texas for breach of contract and various torts. The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's finding of no personal jurisdiction over the defendant. 12 37 We believe, however, that Cousteau is distinguishable on its facts. In the first place, there was clearly a contract in Cousteau; the existence of a contract in this case is highly debatable. Further, the contract in Cousteau became effective upon the mailing of the plaintiff's acceptance from Texas; even if there is a contract here, it is unclear whether it became effective upon Burstein's mailing of the application and fee from Louisiana, upon the Bar's finding that she passed the character examination, upon her arrival at the testing place in California on the proper day, or at some other time. Moreover, the performance the Cousteau contract required of the defendant in Texas was delivery of the film and reports, an integral element of a contract for goods and services. Delivery of Burstein's bar examination results to Louisiana was not such an integral element of the Bar's performance of the alleged contract, which was purely for services. The Cousteaucourt found that Texas law might well govern the interpretation of the contract; it seems most unlikely that Louisiana law would control the interpretation of any contract in this case. In short, the substantial connection with and likely consequences in Texas of the Cousteau contract, 495 F.2d at 497, are wholly absent from this case. 38 In its consideration of the application of general principles of fairness to the facts in Cousteau, 13 the court noted that Texas had a legitimate and reasonable interest in providing a forum for [the] suit, because there was a rational nexus between this lawsuit and a Texas forum. Id. at 498 (footnotes omitted). No such nexus is apparent here. As will be discussed infra, Louisiana's interest in providing a forum for this suit is minimal. Since we find such substantial factual differences, we believe Cousteau does not control this case. 39 Similarly, we find McGee, supra, inapplicable. In McGee, the Texas defendant's sole connection with the California forum was the mailing to the decedent at his California home of an offer to renew a life insurance contract. The Supreme Court upheld the California courts' jurisdiction over the subsequent suit on the insurance contract by the plaintiff beneficiary. The Court's analysis took note of the fact that the contract had a substantial connection with California. 355 U.S. at 223, 78 S.Ct. at 201. This substantial connection arose from several facts: the contract was delivered in California, the premiums were mailed from there, and the insured died there; further, California had a manifest interest in seeing that California residents got the benefits of their insurance contracts. Id. The Court observed that the Californians, usually holders of small claims, might be unable to pursue nonresident insurers to their home states and that the crucial witnesses in such suits would often be found in California. The Court thus held that any inconvenience to the defendant in having the suit in California did not amount to a denial of due process. 40 One final relevant aspect of the facts of McGee is that California had expressed its interest in being the forum for such suits by passing a special statute to authorize service of process on nonresident insurers. Id. at 221, 78 S.Ct. at 200. While it is not clear whether the McGee Court relied on that fact, the Supreme Court has subsequently noted it in distinguishing McGee from other cases. See Kulko v. Superior Court, 436 U.S. 84, 98, 98 S.Ct. 1690, 1700, 56 L.Ed.2d 132 (1978); Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 252, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 1239, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958); cf. Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 214-15, 97 S.Ct. 2569, 2584-2585, 53 L.Ed.2d 683 (1977) (noting incongruence between Delaware's asserted interest in the suit and Delaware statute). 41 The first distinction between McGee and this case is, again, the disputability of the existence of a contract here. In McGee, the defendant solicited the contract; here, Burstein had to take the initial step of seeking an application. There was no delivery of the contract (if any) in this case. It is true that Burstein mailed the application fee from Louisiana, but that is not a precise analogy to the premium mailing, since the premiums were the only performance required of the decedent in McGee, while Burstein, at least before the Bar could be required to admit her to practice, had to take and pass the examination. Certainly Louisiana's interest in insuring that those few of its residents who take out-of-state bar examinations have them graded fairly is much less substantial than California's interest in preventing out-of-state insurance companies from wrongfully refusing to pay the claims of California residents. There is no analog here to the California service of process statute used in McGee. Finally, any witnesses necessary to Burstein's suit (or any Louisianan's suit against an out-of-state bar association) will not be in Louisiana. 42 The only factor favoring jurisdiction in McGee that is clearly present here is that Burstein may be financially unable to pursue the Bar to California. We decline to predicate jurisdiction solely on that circumstance. We thus find that the alleged breach of contract alone does not justify the exercise of personal jurisdiction in this case. 43