Court Opinion

ID: 8916182
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-27 05:09:22.812203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:09:00.552188
License: Public Domain

ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I agree with the majority that the dismissal of the third party complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction should be affirmed, I write separately because I would affirm on statutory rather than on constitutional grounds.
The Illinois Supreme Court has recently indicated that its long arm statute will not necessarily be interpreted to reach the outer limits of due process. Cook Associates, Inc. v. Lexington United Corp., 87 Ill.2d 190, 197-98, 57 Ill.Dec. 730, 733, 429 N.E.2d 847, 850 (1981); Green v. Advance Ross Electronics Corp., 86 Ill.2d 431, 436, 56 Ill. Dec. 657, 660, 427 N.E.2d 1203, 1206 (1981). The court, however, has not yet defined the precise contours of the statute, nor has it disclosed in what specific ways it differs from due process limitations.
Faced with well-defined due process doctrines on one hand and as yet undeveloped statutory interpretation on the other, the district court and the majority understandably chose to apply familiar constitutional analysis rather than try to anticipate what gloss the Illinois courts will eventually add to the statute. As attractive as this choice may seem in the circumstances, I do not believe we should reach out to decide a constitutional issue when we can affirm on the basis of the long arm statute.
*296We know that the Illinois long arm statute “should have a fixed meaning without regard to changing concepts of due process, except, of course, that an interpretation which renders the statute unconstitutional should be avoided, if possible.” Id. Since upholding personal jurisdiction over South Story would create the serious constitutional problems so ably discussed by the district court and the majority, I believe the Illinois courts would conclude that South Story is not amenable to service under the Illinois long arm statute. On that statutory basis, I would affirm.