Court Opinion

ID: 9452534
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:43:26.266253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:15.238153
License: Public Domain

MEDINA, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in my brother Friendly’s excellent and well reasoned opinion except that I would leave the decision of whether newspapers are “goods” within the meaning of subdivision (3) of Connecticut’s long-arm statute to the Connecticut courts in the first instance. This is a highly controversial subject and the holding that the copies of the Post distributed or carried into Connecticut are “goods” within the meaning of the statute is not necessary to our decision that personal jurisdiction over the defendant has been established. I prefer not to interpret the statute in this respect until we have the benefit of the views of Connecticut courts, which may be informed of or have access to materials indicative of the intention of the Connecticut Legislature that are not available to us, or until we are faced with no other alternative.
Moreover, I am not shocked to see the principles embedded in the First Amendment applied to the expanding subject of jurisdiction over the person. Nor would I temporize by suggesting that this is some sort of venue or forum non con*185veniens problem. To me this adds an element of unnecessary confusion. It is much better to have new doctrines develop slowly if they are truly to serve the ends of justice. In this case I am in complete agreement with my brothers in holding that no First Amendment implications prevent the application of the Connecticut long-arm statute to a New York newspaper in favor of a resident of Fairfield County, Connecticut, in an action in Connecticut for defamation, based upon a publication in New York, distributed to commuters and others so near New York City as to be practically in a part of the metropolitan area.