Court Opinion

ID: 9428679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:24:25.563676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:14.651724
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
The equal protection question in this case is novel. I agree with the Court that there is a rational basis for treating unregistered foreign corporations differently from registered corporations because they are somewhat more difficult to locate and to serve with process. Thus, a provision that merely gave plaintiffs a fair opportunity to overcome these difficulties — for example, a longer period of limitations for suits against such corporations, or a tolling provision limited to corporations that had not filed their current address with the Secretary of State — would unquestionably be permissible. But does it follow that it is also rational to deny such corporations the benefit of any statute of limitations? Because there is a rational basis for some differential treatment, does it automatically follow that any differential treatment is constitutionally permissible? I think not; in my view the Constitution requires a rational basis for the special burden imposed on the disfavored class as well as a reason for treating that class differently.
The Court avoids these troubling questions by noting that the New Jersey Supreme Court has stated that an unrepresented foreign corporation may plead the defense of laches in an appropriate case. Ante, at 411. But there are material *421differences between laches — which requires the defendant to prove inexcusable delay and prejudice — and the bar of limitations, which requires no such proof. Thus, the availability of this alternative defense neither eliminates the differential treatment nor provides a justification for it; the defense merely lessens its adverse consequences.
I can find no legitimate state purpose to justify the special burden imposed on unregistered foreign corporations by the challenged statute.* I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

1 do not understand the Court to be holding that New Jersey has a legitimate interest in attempting to require all corporations to submit in all cases to the jurisdiction of its courts, and that discrimination against unregistered foreign corporations is justified by the State’s desire to accomplish this purpose. Since a State may not enact a law that prohibits a foreign corporation from asserting a due process defense to an exercise of personal jurisdiction by a state court, I do not believe that the State may justify a classification that disfavors unregistered foreign corporations on the ground that they refused to take action that would accomplish the same purpose. See Western & Southern Life Ins. Co. v. State Board of Equalization of California, 451 U. S. 648, 674 (Stevens, J., dissenting).