CFH Enterprises, Inc. v. Heatcool

• Decision Date: 30 April 1982
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 81-C-1646.
• Citation: 538 F. Supp. 774
• Parties: C. F. H. ENTERPRISES, INC., a Colorado corporation, Plaintiff, v. HEATCOOL, an Oregon corporation; Northwest Testing Laboratories, an Oregon corporation, Paul Irish, individually, and Roger Breedlove, individually, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Colorado

538 F. Supp. 774

C. F. H. ENTERPRISES, INC., a Colorado corporation, Plaintiff, v. HEATCOOL, an Oregon corporation; Northwest Testing Laboratories, an Oregon corporation, Paul Irish, individually, and Roger Breedlove, individually, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 81-C-1646.

United States District Court, D. Colorado.

April 30, 1982.

Todd M. McNamara, Atler, Zall & Haligman, P. C., Denver, Colo., for plaintiff.

Richard G. Peterson, DeMoulin, Anderson, Campbell & Laugesen, P. C., John M. Vaught, Holland & Hart, Charles H. Jacobs, Bourke & Jacobs, P. C., Denver, Colo., for defendants.

ORDER

CARRIGAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff C.F.H. Enterprises, Inc. (hereafter, "C.F.H.") filed this diversity action against the defendants Heatcool, Northwest Testing Laboratories (hereafter, "Northwest"), Paul Irish and Roger Breedlove, claiming fraud and misrepresentation. Defendants Northwest and Irish, both Oregon citizens for diversity purposes, move to dismiss, asserting that this Court lacks jurisdiction over their persons and that requiring them to defend this action in Colorado would deny them due process of law. They argue that their contacts with Colorado are insufficient to empower Colorado courts, under the Colorado long-arm statute, to render a judgment enforceable against them. Alternatively, they move to transfer this case to the District of Oregon pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404. Defendants Heatcool and Irish have joined in the transfer motion. The issues presented by these motions have been thoroughly briefed and argued.

It appears that C.F.H. entered into a distributorship contract with the defendant Heatcool to sell Heatcool's insulated windows in Colorado and Wyoming. C.F.H. alleges that, in agreeing to accept the distributorship, it relied to its detriment on a test report provided to it by Heatcool. This report was prepared by Northwest and signed for Northwest by Irish. C.F.H. further alleges that before signing the distributorship contract, it telephoned from Colorado to Northwest, in Oregon, and spoke to Irish in an attempt to verify the report's accuracy.

C.F.H. conceded at oral argument that Northwest and Irish do not transact any business in Colorado.¹ Thus, it is clear that any jurisdiction this Court has must rest upon the language in Colorado's long-arm statute allowing jurisdiction against one who commits "a tortious act within this state." § 13-1-124(1)(b), C.R.S.1973.

The Colorado long-arm statute has been interpreted to extend the jurisdiction of Colorado courts to the fullest reach permitted by the United States Constitution. Jenner & Block v. District Court, 197 Colo. 184, 590 P.2d 964, 965 (1979). This interpretation obviates the need for statutory analysis separate from the due process inquiry required by International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), and its progeny.

"As has long been settled, ... a state court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant only so long as there exist `minimum contacts' between the defendant and the forum state." World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 291, 100 S.Ct. 559, 564, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980) (citations omitted). Here, as in World-Wide Volkswagen, there is an absence of "those affiliating circumstances that are a necessary predicate to any exercise of personal jurisdiction." 444 U.S. at 295, 100 S.Ct. at 566. Neither Northwest nor Irish engages in business in Colorado, nor does either solicit business here. They have no regular contacts with the state. They avail themselves of none of the privileges or benefits of Colorado law. In short, C.F.H. is attempting to base personal jurisdiction...