Court Opinion

ID: 9470317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:02:25.04943+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:50.228906
License: Public Domain

TATE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. While the majority makes out a persuasive case, I regretfully must differ with its conclusion that federal due process is offended by the exercise of personal jurisdiction in Texas, where the allegedly defective equipment was manufactured at the non-resident defendant’s order and in accordance with specifications furnished by it.
As we recently summarized in Mississippi Interstate Express, Inc. v. Transpo, Inc., 681 F.2d 1003, 1007 (5th Cir.1982):
When a nonresident defendant takes “purposeful and affirmative action,” the effect of which is “to cause business activity, foreseeable by [the defendant], in the forum state,” such action by the defendant is considered a “minimum contact” for jurisdictional purposes. Marathon Metallic Building Co. v. Mountain Empire Construction Co., 653 F.2d 921, 923 (5th Cir.1981.) “When a defendant purposefully avails himself of the benefits and protection of the forum’s laws— by engaging in activity ... outside the state that has reasonably foreseeable consequences in the state — maintenance of the lawsuit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” Prejean v. Sonatrach, Inc. 652 F.2d 1260, 1268 (5th Cir.1981).
In the present instance, the contract was in the form of a purchase order, by which the Alaska defendant agreed to purchase from the Texas plaintiff the equipment, to be specially manufactured by the Texas plaintiff in Texas in accordance with the contract specifications furnished by the Alaska defendant. Thus a substantial part of the performance of the contract was contemplated to be (and was) in Texas. Payment for the goods was to be made in Texas. Prior to the conclusion of the written contract, extensive communications occurred between the parties, originating both in Texas and Alaska. The defendant’s officers traveled to Texas to close the deal, and the Texas plaintiff accepted the contract terms and executed the writing in Texas.
When the goods were shipped to Alaska after their manufacture in Texas, the Alaska defendant rejected them as unsuitable. From the factual showings, the dispute seems to concern whether the equipment failed to function improperly although manufactured in accordance with the defendant-buyer’s specifications (i.e., defective specifications by the defendant) or whether instead the equipment was defectively manufactured. In either event, the Texas locus will furnish a substantial focus of the evidentiary frame of this litigation, with Texas fact witnesses predominating as the source of whether or not the Texas plaintiff properly manufactured the equipment in accordance with the specifications furnished by the Alaska defendant.
In my view, these Texas contacts are sufficient that it is fair and reasonable to require the Alaska defendant to come into Texas and defend the suit. Further, the Alaska defendant is considered to have purposely availed itself of the privilege of conducting activities within Texas since it was reasonably foreseeable that the Texas plaintiff would in fact perform a material part of its contractual obligations within that forum state. Mississippi Interstate Express, Inc., supra, 681 F.2d at 1007-08; Marathon Metallic Building Company v. Mountain Empire Construction Company, 653 F.2d 921 (5th Cir.1981); Southwest Offset, Inc. v. Hudco Publishing Co., Inc., 622 F.2d 149 (5th Cir.1980).
In the event of litigation arising out of the contract, it was reasonably foreseeable that the Alaska defendant might avail itself of the Texas courts either to enforce the contract or to secure a determination that it had been breached and that the witnesses as to the performance or non-performance *1033of the manufacturing contract would in substantial part be available principally in the Texas forum. In my view, it is not unfair or unreasonable to require that defendant to respond in Texas, the most convenient forum for trial of these issues, when it refused to pay for the equipment, as unsuitable, that it caused to be manufactured in Texas according to its specifications, as a result of a contract in part negotiated in Texas and there accepted by the Texas plaintiff.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.