Adamek v. Michigan Door Company, 38127

• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: MURPHY; OTIS
• Citation: Adamek v. Michigan Door Company, 108 N.W.2d 607, 260 Minn. 54 (Minn. 1961)
• Decision Date: 07 April 1961
• Docket Number: No. 38127,38127
• Parties: Harry ADAMEK, Respondent, v. MICHIGAN DOOR COMPANY and Mulder Brothers, Inc., Appellants.

Page 607

108 N.W.2d 607

260 Minn. 54

Harry ADAMEK, Respondent, v. MICHIGAN DOOR COMPANY and Mulder Brothers, Inc. Appellants.

No. 38127.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 7, 1961.

Syllabus by the Court

Under the facts recited in the opinion the defendant corporations had sufficient contacts in this state to subject them to jurisdiction under Minn.St. 303.13, the so-called 'single-act' statute.

Scow & Gray, Long Prairie, for appellants.

Charles W. Kennedy, Bradford & Kennedy, Wadena, Don E. Kennedy, Staples, for respondent.

MURPHY, Justice.

This case involves a tort action in which the plaintiff recovered a verdict against the defendant foreign corporations for damages for injuries resulting from the alleged negligence of the defendant corporations in the manufacture of a door made in Michigan and sold in Minnesota. The appeal is from the judgment in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant corporations attack the jurisdiction of the court, asserting that they did not have such minimal contacts within the State of Minnesota as would subject them to jurisdiction under Minn.St. 303.13.

From the record it appears that defendants are Michigan corporations having common ownership. Mulder Brothers, Inc., is engaged in the manufacture of doors. Michigan Door Company is engaged in the selling of those doors. The latter corporation solicits business throughout the United States by means of mailing price lists to customers from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Orders are placed by customers by mail to Grand Rapids. Neither corporation has any resident agent in Minnesota nor any agent coming into the state. In 1957, doors were sold to Lampert Lumber Company of St. Paul, Minnesota. On November 22, 1957, Lampert sold one of these doors from its yard at Staples, Minnesota, to the plaintiff, a Minnesota resident. While making some needed alterations in the size of the door, the plaintiff was allegedly injured by an asserted defect in the manufacture and assembly of the door and by the subsequent, purportedly negligent act of the Michigan Door Company in selling the door in its allegedly defective condition.

The application of § 303.13, subd. 1(3), has been discussed at length in three recent cases of this court: Beck v. Spindler, 256 Minn. 543, 99 N.W.2d 670; Atkins v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 258 Minn. 571, 104 N.W.2d 888; and The Dahlberg Co. v. Western Hearing Aid Center, Ltd., 259 Minn. ---, 107 N.W.2d 381. The Atkins case involved an action for personal injuries allegedly caused by the negligence of a foreign corporation which did not have salesmen in this state nor contract relations with dealers or distributors here. The complaint alleged that while handling the defendant's product the plaintiff was injured as a result of the defendant's...