Notes
and Problems
1.
a. Venue will lie
in the Southern District of New York because that’s where the defendant lives.
b. I would want
to know where the events leading to the suit occurred. I would also want to know where else the
defendant could be subject to personal jurisdiction.
2. Here we would
have to rely on finding a forum where both defendants are subject to personal
jurisdiction. The Southern District of
New York should be okay due to the bubble rule.
3. So you can sue
them in the district where they are headquartered or incorporated.
4.
a. The venue
could be either the Eastern District of California or
b. The rule is
that an alien may be sued in any district.
Probably the Eastern District of California would be the easiest.
c. OK!
d. Personal
jurisdiction over C will only lie in forums where C established minimum
contacts, which would probably limit jurisdiction to
5. It appears
that the difference between § 1391(a)(3) and § 1391(b)(3) is no difference at
all under current case law.
Dee-K
Enterprises, Inc. v. Heveafil Sdn. Bhd.
982
F. Supp. 1138 (E.D. Va. 1997)
Yeazell,
pp. 199-201
Facts: The plaintiffs are American
companies suing foreign companies. The defendants
challenged personal jurisdiction and venue.
Issue: Is venue proper in the
Eastern District of Virginia?
Rule: The foreign defendants may
be sued in any district. The American
distributors can only be sued in districts where they can be “found”.
Analysis: The court looks at the
contacts of the American defendants in
Conclusion: The court rules that the plaintiff
must make a showing that venue is proper in the Eastern District of Virginia or
else the proceedings would be transferred to the Western District of Virginia.
Notes
and Problems
1.
a. The
requirements for personal jurisdiction are satisfied by a two-part test: first,
a statutory test, which was passed, and second, by a constitutional test. Any way you slice it, the court says that
service was constitutionally okay, and therefore the statutory threshold test “collapses”
into the constitutional test.
b. OK!
2.
a. If there are
only foreign defendants, venue may lie in any district in the country.
b. If there are
both foreign and domestic defendants, you are constrained in your choice of
venue by the more strict § 1391(b)(3).
You need to pick a district where at least one of the defendants
can be found.
c. The domestic defendants
cannot be sued in the Eastern District if none of them can be found there. The plaintiff failed to allege that any of
the domestic defendants could be found in the Eastern District. The court needs the plaintiffs to provide
such evidence in order to proceed.
3. Why have both
venue and personal jurisdiction? Venue
is older than personal jurisdiction. We
could even get rid of venue. That would
be inconvenient in the short term, but it wouldn’t violate the Due Process
Clause and would save time and money in the long run.