Butler v. Beer across America

• Decision Date: 10 February 2000
• Docket Number: No. CV99-H-2050-S.,CV99-H-2050-S.
• Parties: Lynda BUTLER, Plaintiff, v. BEER ACROSS AMERICA; Merchant Direct; and Shermer Specialties, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

83 F.Supp.2d 1261

Lynda BUTLER, Plaintiff, v. BEER ACROSS AMERICA; Merchant Direct; and Shermer Specialties, Inc., Defendants.

No. CV99-H-2050-S.

United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

February 10, 2000.

Kathryn H. Sumrall, Donald D. Knowlton, II, Garrison & Sumrall, PC, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiff.

Warren B. Lightfoot, Anne Sikes Hornsby, Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC, Birmingham, AL, for Defendants.

ORDER

HANCOCK, Senior District Judge.

The Court has before it the August 6, 1999 motion of defendants Beer Across America, Merchant Direct, and Shermer Specialties (collectively "Beer Across America") to dismiss the present action for lack of personal jurisdiction.¹ Pursuant to the Court's October 8, 1999 order, the motion came under submission on December 17, 1999.

On June 8, 1999, plaintiff Lynda Butler initiated the present action by filing a complaint in the Circuit Court of Shelby County, Alabama. The complaint asserts a claim under the Civil Damages Act, section 6-5-70 of the Alabama Code, arising from the sale of beer to plaintiff's son, Hunter Butler, by the defendants via the Internet. (See Compl. ¶¶ 1-2.) The Civil Damage Act² provides for a civil action by the parent or guardian of a minor against anyone who knowingly and illegally sells or furnishes liquor to the minor. See Ala. Code § 6-5-70 (1993). On August 6, 1999 defendants timely removed the action to this Court; removal was based upon diversity of citizenship given that plaintiff is a citizen of Alabama and that the defendants are three related Illinois corporations engaged in the marketing and sale of alcoholic beverages and other, complementary merchandise. Upon removal, the defendants simultaneously moved for dismissal.

The issue of personal jurisdiction presented in this case has been briefed extensively by both parties and the Court has received numerous evidentiary submissions. First, on August 12, 1999 defendants filed the August 9, 1999 affidavit of Louis A Amoroso. On August 30, 1999 plaintiff submitted evidence in opposition to the motion to dismiss.³ Defendants then filed an initial brief in support of their motion to dismiss on September 10, 1999. Plaintiff responded on September 13, 1999 with a brief in opposition to dismissal⁴ and on October 4, 1999 with a supplemental brief. Oral argument was held at the Court's regular motion docket on October 8, 1999, following which the Court allowed limited discovery on the issue of personal jurisdiction. (See Oct. 12, 1999 Order.) Following a period of limited discovery, plaintiff made evidentiary submissions on November 15, 1999.⁵ Next defendants filed a supplemental brief in support of their motion to dismiss on November 29, 1999, and, finally, on December 10, 1999 plaintiff filed a response to the defendants' supplemental brief with attached excerpts from plaintiff's November 15, 1999 evidentiary submissions. Defendants' motion is now ripe for consideration.

The burden of establishing personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant is on the plaintiff. See Robinson v. Giarmarco & Bill, P.C., 74 F.3d 253, 255 (11th Cir.1996). To survive a defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, the plaintiff must demonstrate a prima facie case of personal jurisdiction, which requires the presentation of evidence sufficient to withstand a motion for a directed verdict. See Cable/Home Communication v. Network Productions, Inc., 902 F.2d 829, 855 (11th Cir.1990). In considering whether such a showing has been made, the court must accept as true all uncontroverted facts alleged in the complaint and must also draw all reasonable inferences arising from controverted assertions of fact in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Robinson, 74 F.3d at 255.

Questions of personal jurisdiction require an application of general legal principles to the particular facts contained in the complaint and in the parties' evidentiary submissions. See Alexander Proudfoot Co. World Hqtrs. L.P. v. Thayer, 877 F.2d 912, 914 (11th Cir.1989). Here, the facts are simple. In early April of 1999, plaintiff's minor son, who apparently was left home unsupervised (but with a credit card issued in his name) while his parents vacationed, placed an order for twelve bottles of beer with defendants through Beer Across America's Internet site on the World Wide Web. Under the applicable provisions of the U.C.C., the sale occurred in Illinois.⁶ The beer was then shipped to plaintiff's son in Alabama and delivered to the Butler residence by the carrier acting, the entire time, as the agent of the plaintiff's son. The sale was not discovered by plaintiff until she returned home and found several bottles of beer from the shipment remaining in the family's refrigerator. Together, these facts present the following question: whether personal jurisdiction properly may be asserted by a federal court sitting in diversity in Alabama over a nonresident Illinois defendant in an action arising from a sale made in Illinois solely in response to an order placed by an Alabama resident via the Internet?

Having framed the issue, the Court turns to the multi-part analysis implicated by this question. The first part of the analysis requires a consideration of state law because the reach of a federal diversity court's jurisdictional power over a nonresident defendant may not exceed the limits allowed under state law. See Robinson, 74 F.3d at 256; Madara v. Hall, 916 F.2d 1510, 1514 (11th Cir.1990); Cable/Home, 902 F.2d at 855; Alexander Proudfoot, 877 F.2d at 919; Brown v. Astron Enters., Inc., 989 F.Supp. 1399, 1403 (N.D.Ala.1997). If a basis for personal jurisdiction is found under the state's long arm statute, the court then conducts a two-part due process analysis. See Madara, 916 F.2d at 1514; Brown, 989 F.Supp. at 1403.

As one arm of the due process analysis, the court initially must determine whether at least minimum contacts exist between the defendant and the jurisdiction. See Madara, 916 F.2d 1510, 1515-16; Cable/Home, 902 F.2d at 857. The significant question is whether "the defendant's conduct and connection with the forum State are such that he should reasonably anticipate being haled into court there"? World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 297, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980). The level and nature of such conduct and connections may support either general or specific jurisdiction. See Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. v. Hall, 466 U.S. 408, 414, 104 S.Ct. 1868, 80 L.Ed.2d 404 (1984). See also Madara, 916 F.2d at 1516 n. 7; Cable/Home, 902 F.2d at 857 n. 41. General jurisdiction may be exercised when a defendant's contacts with the forum are sufficiently numerous, purposeful, and continuous, as to render fair an assertion of power over the defendant by that state's courts no matter the nature or extent of the relationship to the forum entailed in the particular litigation; if general jurisdiction is established, absolutely no connection need be shown between the state and the claim for the defendant to be summoned constitutionally before that forum's courts. See Helicopteros, 466 U.S. at 414-15 & n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 1868. In contrast, specific jurisdiction may be based upon less extensive contacts, but jurisdiction will lie only in those matters which are related to or which arise from those contacts. See id. at 414 & n. 8, 104 S.Ct. 1868. Regardless of the specific or general nature of the contacts in question, for purposes of satisfying due process, they must be purposeful on the part of the defendant; "it is essential in each case that there be some act by which the defendant purposefully avails itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State, thus invoking the benefits and protection of its laws." Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958). See also Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 216, 97 S.Ct. 2569, 53 L.Ed.2d 683 (1977) ("Appellants have simply had nothing to do with the State of Delaware. Moreover, appellants had no reason to expect to be haled before a Delaware court."). Jurisdiction will not be supported because of "random, fortuitous, or attenuated contacts ... or because of the unilateral activity of a third person." Madara, 916 F.2d at 1516 (citations omitted). See also Keeton v. Hustler Magazine, Inc., 465 U.S. 770, 774, 104 S.Ct. 1473, 79 L.Ed.2d 790 (1984) (finding that "regular monthly sales of thousands of magazines cannot by any stretch of the imagination be characterized as random, isolated, or fortuitous"); Hanson, 357 U.S. at 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228 ("The unilateral activity of those who claim some relationship with a nonresident defendant cannot satisfy the requirement of contact with the forum State."); Robinson v. Giarmarco & Bill, P.C., 74 F.3d 253, 258 (11th Cir.1996). However, even if minimum contacts are found, the court must still address the second prong of the due process analysis. See Madara, 916 F.2d at 1517.

In addition to minimum contacts, due process mandates a consideration of the fairness in forcing the defendant to litigate in a foreign forum. See id.; Cable/Home Communication v. Network Productions, Inc., 902 F.2d 829, 857 (11th Cir.1990). This fairness inquiry is rooted in International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), and its pronouncement that a nonresident defendant must "have certain minimum contacts with [the forum] such that maintenance of the suit does not offend `traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.'" International Shoe, 326 U.S. at 316, 66 S.Ct. 154 (quoting Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457, 463, 61 S.Ct. 339, 85 L.Ed. 278 (1940)). To answer this inquiry into "fair play and substantial justice," the court will examine the nature of the defendant's contacts with the forum in light of additional factors, including the burdens on the defendant of litigating in the foreign forum; the interests...