Ex Parte Dbi, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 May 2009
• Docket Number: 1071433.
• Citation: 23 So.3d 635
• Parties: Ex parte DBI, INC., f/k/a Duck Boo International Co., Ltd. (In re Tonya Leann Leytham, administratrix and personal representative of the estate of Tiffany Stabler, deceased, and as mother and next friend of Tiffany Stabler, deceased v. Kia Motors America, Inc., et al.)
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

23 So.3d 635

Ex parte DBI, INC., f/k/a Duck Boo International Co., Ltd. (In re Tonya Leann Leytham, administratrix and personal representative of the estate of Tiffany Stabler, deceased, and as mother and next friend of Tiffany Stabler, deceased v. Kia Motors America, Inc., et al.)

1071433.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

May 1, 2009.

Michael D. Knight and Karen Tucker Luce of McDowell Knight Roedder & Sledge, L.L.C., Mobile, for petitioner.

George W. Finkbohner III, David G. Wirtes, Jr., David S. Cain, Jr., and George M. Dent III of Cunningham Bounds, LLC, Mobile, for respondent.

LYONS, Justice.

DBI, Inc., f/k/a Duck Boo International Co., Ltd. ("DBI"), a defendant in an action pending in the Mobile Circuit Court, petitioned in a prior proceeding for a writ of mandamus asking this Court to direct the trial court to dismiss the claims against it on the basis that the trial court lacks personal jurisdiction over DBI. We concluded that we could not satisfactorily address the issue presented at that time without the completion of the further discovery that was outstanding in the trial court and as to which a motion to compel had been granted. Therefore, we denied the petition as premature. See Ex parte Duck Boo Int'l Co., 985 So.2d 900 (Ala. 2007). Now that the discovery has been completed and the trial court has again denied DBI's renewed motion to dismiss, DBI has filed a second petition for a writ of mandamus. We deny the petition.

I. Factual Background and Procedural History

The underlying action was brought by Tonya Leann Leytham, in her capacity as administratrix and personal representative of Tiffany Stabler's estate and as Stabler's mother and next friend. Leytham sued DBI, a manufacturer of seat belts for motor vehicles; Kia Motors America, Inc., and Kia Motors Corporation (collectively referred to as "Kia Motors"); and several other defendants following an automobile accident on July 4, 2004, as a result of which Stabler died. Stabler was driving a 1999 Kia Sephia automobile, a vehicle manufactured by Kia Motors, that was equipped with a seat belt manufactured by DBI. Leytham alleges that Stabler was wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident but that the seat belt malfunctioned, allowing Stabler to be ejected from her vehicle and to suffer fatal injuries.

DBI is located in the Republic of Korea ("South Korea") and contends that it does no direct business with, or in, the United States. After Leytham filed her complaint, DBI filed a motion to dismiss the claims against it, alleging that the trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over it. DBI supported its motion with the affidavit of Jung-Ho Choi, the director in charge of the technical department at DBI. Leytham thereafter served interrogatories and requests for production on DBI. Reasserting the jurisdictional arguments contained in its motion to dismiss and also arguing that Leytham had not alleged a colorable claim of jurisdiction, DBI asserted that a response to the discovery was not required. Leytham filed a motion to compel, contending that because DBI placed the seat belts into the stream of commerce in the United States without any limitations, DBI should reasonably expect to be haled into court in one of the states in which the product is used. For that reason, she argued, DBI was required to respond to discovery directed to the issue of personal jurisdiction.

Leytham amended her complaint to add additional jurisdictional allegations. The trial court thereafter granted the motion to compel before DBI had filed a response. DBI moved for reconsideration, contending that simply allowing a product to be placed into the stream of commerce was insufficient to subject an entity to jurisdiction in Alabama, and that evidence was required indicating that it had purposefully availed itself of the privilege of doing business in Alabama and that it had purposefully directed activities toward Alabama. The trial court denied the motion to reconsider. Leytham then filed a second amended complaint; DBI filed a motion to dismiss it, adopting and incorporating its previously filed motion to dismiss.

After this Court denied DBI's petition for a writ of mandamus in Ex parte Duck Boo, the parties engaged in the further discovery ordered by the trial court. DBI states that, based on its understanding of this Court's opinion in Ex parte Duck Boo, it initially limited its discovery responses to requests related to the volume, the value, and the alleged hazardous character of the product,¹ and also limited its responses to Alabama and the model of seat belt used in the vehicle Stabler was driving, the SG-284 model, because, DBI argued, the relevant inquiry for jurisdictional purposes turns on DBI's contact with Alabama. Leytham filed another motion to compel, arguing that DBI should be required to respond to discovery requests that went beyond the volume, the value, and the allegedly hazardous nature of DBI's products and that DBI had improperly limited its responses to Alabama and the SG-284 model seat belt at issue. Instead, Leytham argued, DBI should be required to provide responses for all model seat belts and for the United States as a whole. The trial court granted Leytham's motion to compel. DBI supplemented its discovery responses to include information concerning its contacts with the United States and information regarding all seat-belt models provided to Kia Motors for use in automobiles sold in the United States but stated that it lacked the ability to break down its responses by state. The trial court denied DBI's motion to dismiss Leytham's second amended complaint. DBI then filed this petition for a writ of mandamus.

II. Factual Matters Pertaining to Minimum Contacts

Leytham's complaint alleges that the following establish that the trial court has personal jurisdiction over DBI:

• DBI "purchased and carries liability insurance that provides insurance coverage in every one of the United States, including Alabama."

• DBI "has engaged in designing, manufacturing and marketing its seatbelts and other products to conform with United States governmental and industry wide safety and design standards and criteria, including safety standards by United States regulatory agencies and state common law court decisions, including the Courts of Alabama."

• DBI "and/or its representatives have attended American automobile manufacturing trade shows and/or have participated in trade groups to ensure that [DBI's] products comply with governmental and industry wide safety and design standards and criteria, including government standards imposed by legislative bodies, regulatory agencies and/or state common law court decisions, including the Courts of Alabama."

• DBI "has advertised through the World Wide Web and print and other media with a goal towards expanding the markets for its seatbelts and other products to all of the United States, including Alabama."

• DBI "has employed personnel and consultants ... to provide guidance and advice about how to successfully market its seatbelts and other products to automobile and other manufacturers who, in turn, sell their products in all of the United States, including Alabama."

• DBI "has retained American legal counsel ... to defend and protect [its] interests when foreseeable product liability suits would be filed against it in the United States, including Alabama."

• DBI attached to the seat belt in the automobile driven by Stabler "a label written in the English language and stating, among other things, that it was manufactured by [DBI] and that it complies with the United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards applicable to seatbelts."

• DBI "contracted with one or more companies in the United States to conduct seatbelt testing, it being the purpose of [DBI] to avail itself of markets throughout the United States, including Alabama."

• DBI "has had many different models of its seatbelts shipped to the United States to be tested for compliance with the United States of American Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 209 by a U.S. based company—i.e., SGS U.S. Testing Company, Inc."

• DBI "attaches identification tags to the seatbelts that it manufactures, just like the seatbelt with the label in English referenced hereinabove."

• DBI "previously included on its website a time line stating that in 1987 it began to export vehicle seatbelts to the United States."

In support of her initial motion to compel discovery, Leytham submitted to the trial court pleadings in actions against DBI in other states, documents produced by Kia Motors reflecting testing of seat belts manufactured by DBI by SGS U.S. Testing Company, Inc., and an affidavit of one of Leytham's attorneys attaching a photograph of the DBI seat belt on the vehicle involved in the accident made the basis of this claim, which reflects that DBI manufactured the seat belt in accordance with United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards ("FMVSS").

DBI's motion to dismiss relied upon the affidavit of Choi, who testified that the following list of items indicated that DBI did not have sufficient minimum contacts with Alabama to subject it to the jurisdiction of an Alabama court:

• DBI conducts business entirely within South Korea and maintains no agents, physical presence, or property within Alabama or the United States.

• DBI manufactures vehicle-restraint systems that it sells exclusively to South Korean final-stage motor-vehicle manufacturers, who are solely responsible for integrating DBI's restraint systems into their final products.

• DBI has no control over where the final product is marketed, sold, or distributed, because the marketing, selling, and distributing is left to the final-stage manufacturer.

• DBI is not authorized, qualified, licensed, or registered to do business in Alabama.

• DBI does not sell any products in Alabama.

• DBI has never entered into any contract in Alabama; has never entered into a...