Hanson
v. Denckla
357
Yeazell,
p. 117-118
Facts: A
family fought over the estate of Mrs. Donner, who had
established a trust in
Issue: Are
there sufficient contacts between the trust company and the state of
Rule: If
there are only minimal contacts between a state and a defendant, then the
contacts must be closely related to the claim.
Analysis: The
court says that the contacts were not sufficient in volume, nor were they sufficiently
related. The court concedes that the
trust paid income to her in
Conclusion: The
court rules that
Notes and Problems
1. There is a difference between the two cases.
a.
It seems reasonable to me
that if you purchase a company that does business with clients far away, you
should expect to become involved in legal matters in those jurisdictions.
b. The factual difference between the two cases is that the contact in McGee
is completely related to the claim while the contacts in Hanson are not
really that related. However, I think
the real reason these cases came to different results is that the court in Hanson
didn’t want one daughter to have all the stuff.
I think this may have tipped the scales against giving
2. I was wondering about this in class: whether a foreign national or
international corporation can sue or be sued in the
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