Court Opinion

ID: 9642326
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:54:51.477029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:45.921530
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, Chief Judge,
with whom MACK and FERREN, Associate Judges, join, concurring:
I concur in the per curiam opinion, but would go one step further. The per curiam opinion does not resolve whether jurisdiction might be sustained under similar operative facts but where plaintiff, as opposed to the defendant, had initiated the contacts. I would note that the assertion of jurisdiction has withstood a due process challenge even where the initial solicitation to enter a contract was made by plaintiff rather than the defendant. See, e. g., Vencedor Manufacturing Co. v. Gougler Industries, Inc., 557 F.2d 886 (1st Cir. 1977); Shealy v. Challenger Manufacturing Co., 304 F.2d 102, 104 (4th Cir. 1962); J. Henrijean & Sons v. M. V. Bulk Enterprise, 311 F.Supp. 417, 421 (W.D.Mich.1970); Dornbos v. Kroger Co., 9 Mich.App. 515, 157 N.W.2d 498 (1968).
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit observed in Gougler Industries that “[t]he intricacies of offer, counteroffer, and invitation to make an offer are irrelevant to the central concern for fairness that should illuminate this area of the law.” 557 F.2d at 890. And, as the court stated in Pedi Bares, Inc. v. P & C Food Markets, Inc., 567 F.2d 933 (10th Cir. 1977):
The principal distinction between the present case and McGee is that there the defendant made the initial solicitation while here that was made by the plaintiff. Initial contact is not decisive. The subsequent conduct of P & C shows that it purposely availed itself of the privilege of carrying on activities to secure goods from a Kansas manufacturer and seller. [Id. at 937.]
So, too, here, where a Florida defendant purposely availed itself of the privilege of carrying on activities to secure services from a district of Columbia attorney, it should not matter whether the plaintiff or defendant made the initial contact.