Court Opinion

ID: 9428778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:24:45.280066+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:15.251985
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
concurring in the judgment.
The Court rests today’s decision on a constitutional distinction between “subject matter” and “in personam” jurisdiction. Under this distinction, subject-matter jurisdiction defines an Art. Ill limitation on the power of federal courts. By contrast, the Court characterizes the limits on in perso-nam jurisdiction solely in terms of waivable personal rights and notions of “fair play.” Having done so, it determines *710that fundamental questions of judicial power do not arise in this case concerning the personal jurisdiction of a federal district court.
In my view the Court’s broadly theoretical decision misapprehends the issues actually presented for decision. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Their personal jurisdiction, no less than their subject-matter jurisdiction, is subject both to constitutional and to statutory definition. When the applicable limitations on federal jurisdiction are identified, it becomes apparent that the Court’s theory could require a sweeping but largely unexplicated revision of jurisdictional doctrine. This revision could encompass not only the personal jurisdiction of federal courts but “sovereign” limitations on state jurisdiction as identified in World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U. S. 286, 291-293 (1980). Fair resolution of this case does not require the Court’s broad holding. Accordingly, although I concur in the Court’s judgment, I cannot join its opinion.
I
This lawsuit began when the respondent Compagnie des Bauxites brought a contract action against the petitioner insurance companies in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Alleging diversity jurisdiction, respondent averred that the District Court had personal jurisdiction of the petitioners, all foreign corporations, under the long-arm statute of the State of Pennsylvania. See Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinea v. Insurance Co. of North America, 651 F. 2d 877, 880-881 (CA3 1981). Petitioners, however, denied that they were subject to the court’s personal jurisdiction under that or any other statute. Viewing the question largely as one of fact, the court ordered discovery to resolve the dispute.
Meantime, while respondent unsuccessfully sought compliance with its discovery requests, petitioners brought a parallel action in England’s High Court of Justice, Queens Bench *711Division. It was at this juncture that the current issues arose. Seeking to enjoin the English proceedings, respondent sought an injunction in the District Court. Petitioners protested that they were not subject to that court’s personal jurisdiction and thus that they lay beyond its injunctive powers. But the District Court disagreed. As a jurisdictional prerequisite to its entry of the injunction, the court upheld its personal jurisdiction over petitioners.1 It characterized its finding of jurisdiction partly as a sanction for petitioners’ noncompliance with its discovery orders under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b).2
Rule 37(b) is not, however, a jurisdictional provision. As recognized by the Court of Appeals, the governing jurisdictional statute remains the long-arm statute of the State of Pennsylvania. See 651 F. 2d, at 881. In my view the Court fails to make clear the implications of this central fact: that the District Court in this case relied on state law to obtain personal jurisdiction.
As courts of limited jurisdiction, the federal district courts possess no warrant to create jurisdictional law of their own. Under the Rules of Decision Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1652, they must apply state law “except where the Constitution or treaties of the United States or Acts of Congress otherwise require or provide . . . .” See generally Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64 (1938). Thus, in the absence of a federal rule or statute establishing a federal basis for the assertion of personal jurisdiction, the personal jurisdiction of the district courts is determined in diversity cases by the law of the forum State. See, e. g., Intermeat, Inc. v. American Poultry Co., 575 F. 2d 1017 (CA2 1978); Wilkerson v. Fortuna Corp., *712554 F. 2d 745 (CA5), cert. denied, 434 U. S. 939 (1977); Poyner v. Erma Werke Gmbh, 618 F. 2d 1186, 1187 (CA6 1980); Lakeside Bridge & Steel Co. v. Mountain State Constr. Co., 597 F. 2d 596 (CA7 1979), cert. denied, 445 U. S. 907 (1980); Lakota Girl Scout Council, Inc. v. Havey Fundraising Management, Inc., 519 F. 2d 634 (CA8 1975); Arrowsmith v. United Press International, 320 F. 2d 219, 226 (CA2 1963); Forsythe v. Overmyer, 576 F. 2d 779, 782 (CA9), cert. denied, 439 U. S. 864 (1978); Quarles v. Fuqua Industries, Inc., 504 F. 2d 1358 (CA10 1974).3
As a result of the District Court’s dependence on the law of Pennsylvania to establish personal jurisdiction — a dependence mandated by Congress under 28 U. S. C. § 1652 — its jurisdiction in this case normally would be subject to the same due process limitations as a state court. See, e. g., Forsythe v. Overmyer, supra, at 782; Washington v. Norton Mfg., Inc., 588 F. 2d 441, 445 (CA5 1979); Fisons Ltd. v. United States, 458 F. 2d 1241, 1250 (CA7 1972).4 Thus, the question arises how today’s decision is related to cases restricting the personal jurisdiction of the States.
Before today our decisions had established that “minimum contacts” represented a constitutional prerequisite to the exercise of in personam jurisdiction over an unconsenting defendant. See, e. g., World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Wood-*713son, 444 U. S., at 291-293; Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U. S. 235, 251 (1958); International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310, 316 (1945). In the absence of a showing of minimum contacts, a finding of personal jurisdiction over an un-consenting defendant, even as a sanction, therefore would appear to transgress previously established constitutional limitations. The cases cannot be reconciled by a simple distinction between the constitutional limits on state and federal courts. Because of the District Court’s reliance on the Pennsylvania long-arm statute — the applicable jurisdictional provision under the Rules of Decisions Act — the relevant constitutional limits would not be those imposed directly on federal courts by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, but those applicable to state jurisdictional law under the Fourteenth.
The Court’s decision apparently must be understood as related to our state jurisdictional cases in one of two ways. Both involve legal theories that fail to justify the doctrine adopted by the Court in this case.
A
Under traditional principles, the due process question in this case is whether “minimum contacts” exist between petitioners and the forum State that would justify the State in exercising personal jurisdiction. See, e. g., World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, supra, at 291-293; Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U. S. 186, 216 (1977); Hanson v. Denckla, supra, at 251. By finding that the establishment of minimum contacts is not a prerequisite to the exercise of jurisdiction to impose sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37, the Court may be understood as finding that “minimum contacts” no longer are a constitutional requirement for the exercise by a state court of personal jurisdiction over an unconsenting defendant.5 Whenever the Court’s no*714tions of fairness are not offended, jurisdiction apparently may be upheld.
Before today, of course, our cases had linked minimum contacts and fair play as jointly defining the “sovereign” limits on state assertions of personal jurisdiction over uncon-senting defendants. See World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, supra, at 292-293; see Hanson v. Denckla, supra, at 251. The Court appears to abandon the rationale of these cases in a footnote. See ante, at 702-703, n. 10. But it does not address the implications of its action. By eschewing reliance on the concept of minimum contacts as a “sovereign” limitation on the power of States — for, again, it is the State’s long-arm statute that is invoked to obtain personal jurisdiction in the District Court — the Court today effects a potentially substantial change of law. For the first time it defines personal jurisdiction solely by reference to abstract notions of fair play. And, astonishingly to me, it does so in a case in which this rationale for decision was neither argued nor briefed by the parties.
B
Alternatively, it is possible to read the Court opinion, not as affecting state jurisdiction, but simply as asserting that Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure represents a congressionally approved basis for the exercise of personal jurisdiction by a federal district court. On this view Rule 37 vests the federal district courts with authority to take jurisdiction over persons not in compliance with discovery orders. This of course would be a more limited holding. Yet the Court does not cast its decision in these terms. And it provides no support for such an interpretation, either in the language or in the history of the Federal Rules.
*715In the absence of such support, I could not join the Court in embracing such a construction of the Rules of Civil Procedure.6 There is nothing in Rule 37 to suggest that it is intended to confer a grant of personal jurisdiction. Indeed, the clear language of Rule 82 seems to establish that Rule 37 should not be construed as a jurisdictional grant: “These rules shall not be construed to extend . . . the jurisdiction of the United States district courts or the venue of actions therein.” Moreover, assuming that minimum contacts remain a constitutional predicate for the exercise of a State’s in 'personam jurisdiction over an unconsenting defendant, constitutional questions would arise if Rule 37 were read to permit a plaintiff in a diversity action to subject a defendant to a “fishing expedition” in a foreign jurisdiction. A plaintiff is not entitled to discovery to establish essentially speculative allegations necessary to personal jurisdiction. Nor would the use of Rule 37 sanctions to enforce discovery orders constitute a mere abuse of discretion in such a case.7 For me at least, such a use of discovery would raise serious questions as to the constitutional as well as the statutory authority of a federal court — in a diversity case — to exercise personal juris*716diction absent some showing of minimum contacts between the unconsenting defendant and the forum State.
II
In this case the facts alone — unaided by broad jurisdictional theories — more than amply demonstrate that the District Court possessed personal jurisdiction to impose sanctions under Rule 37 and otherwise to adjudicate this case. I would decide the case on this narrow basis.
As recognized both by the District Court and the Court of Appeals, the respondent adduced substantial support for its jurisdictional assertions. By affidavit and other evidence, it made a prima facie showing of “minimum contacts.” See 651 F. 2d, at 881-882, 886, and n. 9. In the view of the District Court, the evidence adduced actually was sufficient to sustain a finding of personal jurisdiction independently of the Rule 37 sanction. App. to Pet. for Cert. 51a, 53a.8
Where the plaintiff has made a prima facie showing of minimum contacts, I have little difficulty in holding that its showing was sufficient to warrant the District Court’s entry of discovery orders. And where a defendant then fails to comply with those orders, I agree that the prima facie showing may be held adequate to sustain the court’s finding that minimum contacts exist, either under Rule 37 or under a theory of “presumption” or “waiver.”
Finding that the decision of the Court of Appeals should be affirmed on this ground, I concur in the judgment of the Court.

 A district court must have personal jurisdiction over a party before it can enjoin its actions. Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 395 U. S. 100, 111-112 (1969).

 The court also found that petitioners in fact had undertaken sufficient business activity in the State to bring them within the reach of the Pennsylvania long-arm statute. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 51a, 53a.

 As Judge Friendly explained in the leading case of Arrowsmith v. United Press International, 320 F. 2d, at 226:
“State statutes determining what foreign corporations may be sued, for what, and by whom, are not mere whimsy; like most legislation they represent a balancing of various considerations — for example, affording a forum for wrongs connected with the state and conveniencing resident plaintiffs, while avoiding the discouragement of activity within the state by foreign corporations. We see nothing in the concept of diversity jurisdiction that should lead us to read into the governing statutes a Congressional mandate, unexpressed by Congress itself, to disregard the balance thus struck by the states.”

 It is not contended that there is any federal basis for the exercise of personal jurisdiction by the District Court.

 The Court refers to the respondent’s prima facie showing of “minimum contacts” only as one factor indicating that the District Court did not abuse *714its discretion in entering a finding of personal jurisdiction as a sanction under Rule 37(b). See ante, at 708. Generally it views the requirement of personal jurisdiction as a right that may be “established or waived like other rights.” Ante, at 706.

 Jurisdiction over the person generally is dealt with by Rule 4, governing the methods of service through which personal jurisdiction may be obtained. Although Rule 4 deals expressly only with service of process, not with the underlying jurisdictional prerequisites, jurisdiction may not be obtained unless process is served in compliance with applicable law. See, e. g., Intermeat, Inc. v. American Poultry Co., 575 F. 2d 1017 (CA2 1978); Washington v. Norton Mfg., Inc., 588 F. 2d 441, 445 (CA5 1979); D. Currie, Federal Courts 858 (2d ed. 1975). For this reason Rule 4 frequently has been characterized as a jurisdictional provision. See, e. g., 374 U. S. 869 (1963) (statement of Black and Douglas, JJ., dissenting from adoption of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure); Currie, supra, at 858; Foster, Long-Arm Jurisdiction in Federal Courts, 1969 Wis. L. Rev. 9, 11. As applicable here, Rule 4 relies expressly on state law. See Fed. Rules Civ. Proc. 4(d)(7) and (e).

 Compare the Court’s view. Ante, at 707.

 The Court of Appeals deemed it unnecessary to review this alternative basis for the District Court’s finding of jurisdiction. See 651 F. 2d, at 886, and n. 9.