jurisdiction-3

 

Jurisdiction #3 - Quiz - answer

 

 

P bought a lighter in a store while visiting New York City (in the Southern District of New York). A few blocks away from the store the lighter flared up suddenly, burning P severely. P lives and works in Toronto, Canada, but he has a summer home in the Adirondacks (in the Northern District of New York).

 

The lighter is distributed in the United States by the X Corp., which is incorporated in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters and Chief Executive Officer in London. The manufacturer of the lighter is the D Corp., a corporation incorporated under the laws of France, with its factories and headquarters in or near Lyon, France. The X Corp. is the D Corp.’s sole distributor. It originally contracted with the D Corp. to distribute the D Corp’s lighters in Europe, but the X Corp. recently found a large market for the lighters in the United States, including New York, and the D Corp. has increased its production in order to meet the X Corp.’s requests.

 

The designer of the lighters is E, an American citizen living in California. The D Corp. contracted with E to design the lighters in France, but E subsequently moved to California and the D Corp. received the plans for the lighters in a fax from San Francisco.

 

P decides to sue the D Corp. and E for product liability in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of New York. P has a process server provide in hand service to the President of the D Corp. while the President is transferring planes between two international flights at JFK airport in New York City. The same process server provides E with in hand service while E is transferring planes between two domestic flights at the Albany International Airport (in the Northern District of New York).

 

 

Assess whether this action might be dismissed by either the D Corp. or E on the basis of subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction or venue.