Court Opinion

ID: 9714438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:37:25.058838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:26.054456
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SIMON, specially concurring: I concur in the court’s conclusion that Illinois has jurisdiction over this case, but not for the reason given, namely that the Canadian corporation is doing business in Illinois merely because it has a subsidiary corporation here. Rather, I would hold that Inc. is an alter ego of Ltd. The record shows that Inc. exists for the sole purpose of selling Ltd.’s products within the United States, that Ltd. provides Inc. with inventory for which Inc. is permitted to pay out of receipts on the sales of that inventory, and that Ltd. owns all of Inc.’s stock. Inc. is overseen, not by a board of directors of its own, but by Ltd.’s board of directors, all Canadians, and two of whose members also serve as president and vice-president of both Ltd. and Inc. In addition, the position of “resident director and manager” of Inc. ranks on Inc.’s official organizational chart with its “service manager” and “spare parts manager” and two levels below its executive officers, both of whom are directors and officers of Ltd. The officers of Inc. are paid by Ltd., as are expenses for business trips on behalf of Inc. Finally, in addition to the substantial name identity between “De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd.” and “De Havilland Canada, Inc.,” Inc. is described in Ltd.’s Illustrated Parts Catalogue as one of three “De Havilland Canada Products Support Depotjs].” In short, Inc. exhibits few of the independent characteristics of a subsidiary company but behaves functionally as a branch of Ltd. and holds itself out to the public to be so. Under these circumstances Inc. is properly viewed as an instrumentality or alter ego of Ltd., and Illinois has general jurisdiction over Ltd. based on Inc.’s activities here. See Leach Co. v. General Sani-Can Manufacturing Corp. (7th Cir. 1968), 393 F.2d 183; Boryk v. deHavilland Aircraft Co. (2d Cir. 1965), 341 F.2d 666; Top Form Mills, Inc. v. Sociedad Nationale Industria Applicazioni Viscosa (S.D.N.Y. 1977), 428 F. Supp. 1237; Captain International Industries, Inc. v. The Westbury, Chicago, Inc. (N.D. Ill. 1975), 416 F. Supp. 721; Tokyo Boeki (U.S.A.), Inc. v. SS Navarino (S.D.N.Y. 1971), 324 F. Supp. 361.