Court Opinion

ID: 9707502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:13:53.747318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:41:30.641394
License: Public Domain

CRONE, Judge,
dissenting.
In my view, the record before us establishes that even if Crown's contacts with Indiana fall under the long-arm provisions of Trial Rule 4.4(A), the assertion of personal jurisdiction in this case offends due process. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
For analytical purposes, it is worth considering several important facts overlooked by the majority. First, the record indicates that after installing a dump bed on the truck for Southwest, Crown delivered the truck to Southwest's facility in Springfield, Missouri. Only then did *972Southwest inform Crown that it would be transferring the truck to Pozzo and ask Crown to install axles on the truck per Pozzo's request and at Pozzo's expense. Crown then returned the truck to its facility. Pozzo issued a purchase order, Crown installed the axles, and then Pozzo retrieved the truck from Missouri. Crown billed Pozzo $9,000 for the installation, which Pozzo paid in fall.5
It is evident to me that Pozzo "purposely availed itself" of the privilege of doing business with Crown in Missouri, rather than the other way around. Pozzo contacted Southwest about acquiring a truck from its Missouri facility, asked Southwest to install a dump bed, asked Southwest to ask Crown to install the appropriate axles, sent Crown a purchase order, retrieved the truck from Crown's Missouri facility, and then paid Crown's invoice. I believe that unlike the appellant in North Texas Steel, Crown was a "local" company that "happened" to expand its business into Indiana in this isolated instance. CJL. North Texas Steel, 679 N.E.2d at 519. Granted, it may have been foreseeable that any defects in Crown's axle installation would become apparent only after the truck was delivered to Pozzo's customer in Indiana, but "'foreseeability' alone has never been a sufficient benchmark for personal jurisdiction under the Due Process Clause." World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 295, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980). As the Supreme Court has observed, were foreseeability the sole criterion, "[elvery seller of chattels would in effect appoint the chattel his agent for service of process. His amenability to suit would travel with the chattel." Id. at 296, 100 S.Ct. 559. The same may be said for those who perform services on chattels, such as Crown in this case.
Under these cireumstances, I cannot conclude that Crown should have reasonably anticipated being haled into court in Indiana. For these reasons, I would affirm the trial court's dismissal of Pozzo's complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction.

. Contrary to Pozzo's assertion in its appellate brief, its complaint does not "allege[] that Crown had improperly installed the axles on an over the road truck prior to the truck being sold by Pozzo to a customer." Appellant's Br. at 2. Rather, Pozzo's complaint alleges that Crown had "purchased goods and/or services from [Pozzo] totaling more than One Thousand Fourteen dollars and [had] wholly refused to pay for said goods and/or services, despite repeated demands by [Pozzo]." Appellant's App. at 46. The record suggests that the truck's owner allegedly experienced problems with the tires rubbing, and that Pozzo performed repairs on the truck for which it billed Crown. As was the trial court, I am "somewhat troubled" by Pozzo's misleading allegation in its complaint, not to mention its misleading assertion in its brief. See id. at 4 ("'The Court is somewhat troubled that while the complaint speaks in terms of parts purchased by [Crown] from [Pozzo] without payment being tendered, the parties had agreed in open court that the facts are as indicated above. The Court determines that, reading the complaint exceedingly liberally, its intent is to recoup expenses for parts and repairs that were necessary due to the work done by [Crown]. The Court would strongly caution [Pozzo] that this issue was a close one, which could very well have lead to outright dismissal."). It is worth noting that Crown did not install the tires on the truck.