Ex parte Lagrone

• Decision Date: 21 June 2002
• Citation: 839 So.2d 620
• Parties: Ex parte Jeffrey Taylor LAGRONE. (In re Jeffrey Taylor Lagrone et al. v. Norco Industries, Inc., et al.).
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

839 So.2d 620

Ex parte Jeffrey Taylor LAGRONE.

(In re Jeffrey Taylor Lagrone et al. v. Norco Industries, Inc., et al.).

1010758.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

June 21, 2002.

David H. Marsh and Michael K. Beard of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan, P.C., Birmingham, for petitioners.

Bruce F. Rogers and James W. Davis of Bainbridge, Mims, Rogers & Smith, L.L.P., Birmingham, for respondents.

LYONS, Justice.

Jeffrey Taylor Lagrone filed an action in the Jefferson Circuit Court against Norco Industries, Inc., Alabama Jack Company, Inc., and Fisher Products, Inc., seeking damages under tort claims and breach-of-warranty claims arising from a brain injury he allegedly sustained when he was struck in the head by a jack. Fisher Products filed a motion to dismiss the claims against it, alleging that the trial court did not have personal jurisdiction over it. The trial court granted the motion. Lagrone seeks a writ of mandamus ordering the trial court to vacate its order granting Fisher Products' motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. We grant the petition and issue the writ.

Procedural History

Lagrone allegedly suffered a serious brain injury when he was struck in the head by a pneumatic-lift jack while he was repairing a tractor. In his initial complaint, filed March 29, 2001, Lagrone alleged that the jack was manufactured and distributed by Norco. Subsequently, Lagrone learned that although Norco's logo and name were on the jack, the jack had actually been manufactured by Fisher Products, a Georgia corporation. On May 9, 2001, Lagrone amended his complaint, naming Fisher Products as a defendant.

On July 16, 2001, Fisher Products filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12, Ala. R. Civ. P. The trial court scheduled a hearing on the motion to dismiss for August 1, 2001. On July 23, Lagrone filed a notice of deposition pursuant to Rule 30(b)(5) and (6), Ala. R. Civ. P., to depose a representative of Fisher Products on the jurisdictional issue only. On July 24, 2001, Lagrone filed a motion to continue the hearing on Fisher Products' motion to dismiss and to permit discovery on the jurisdictional issue. Counsel for Fisher Products did not object to the continuance and notified the trial court that counsel agreed that additional discovery was necessary and that the hearing on the motion to dismiss should be continued. Counsel for Fisher Products advised Lagrone's counsel that the hearing on the motion to dismiss was to be continued. However, on August 1, 2001, the trial court advised Lagrone's counsel that they had 10 days in which to file an affidavit opposing Fisher Products' motion to dismiss, after which time the trial court would rule on the motion. On August 3, 2001, counsel for Lagrone propounded interrogatories and requests for production to Fisher Products concerning the jurisdictional issue; on that same day it filed a motion to shorten the time for Fisher Products to respond to the outstanding discovery requests.

On August 13, 2001, the trial court granted Fisher Products' motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. That same afternoon, counsel for Lagrone received a letter from counsel for Fisher Products stating that Fisher Products' counsel was working on getting responses to Lagrone's interrogatories and compiling the documents pertaining to Fisher Products' sales and shipments, including 17 shipments by Fisher Products on behalf of Norco to customers in Alabama. When it issued the August 13 order dismissing Fisher Products for lack of personal jurisdiction, the trial court had not ruled on Lagrone's motion to continue the August 1 hearing, its motion for relief or for a protective order, or its motion to shorten the time within which discovery must be completed. On August 21, 2001, Lagrone filed a motion to alter, amend, or vacate the judgment of dismissal. On August 29, 2001, the trial court issued an order permitting an additional 30 days from that date for discovery. During this time counsel for Lagrone deposed Wayne Bowers, one of the co-owners of Fisher Products. On December 18, 2001, the trial court denied Lagrone's motion to alter, amend, or vacate its order of August 13, 2001. Lagrone then petitioned for a writ of mandamus.

Facts

Fisher Products is a Georgia corporation; its principal place of business is located in Hartwell, Georgia, near the South Carolina state line. Fisher Products has four employees, including its two co-owners. The company fabricates industrial equipment upon special orders to meet its customers' specifications. Since 1982 or 1983 Fisher Products has fabricated jacks for Norco, the distributor of the jacks and a codefendant in this action. Fisher Products fabricates the jacks for Norco pursuant to orders placed by Norco and ships the jacks to the destinations Norco instructs it to ship them to. Occasionally, to save the time that would otherwise be consumed by shipment to Norco's warehouse, Norco instructs Fisher Products to ship the jacks directly to a third party. According to Bowers, "When I ship it to [Norco's] customer, Norco sends me the instructions and we bill it as shipped by Norco." In those instances, Fisher Products sells the jacks "F.O.B." ("free on board"), which means, according to Bowers, that once the shipment leaves Fisher Products' shipping dock, the goods belong to Norco. On these occasions when Fisher Products ships a jack directly to a third party in Alabama, Fisher Products' invoices describe Norco as the entity to which the product is sold and describes an Alabama addressee as the entity to which the product is to be shipped. The invoices issued by Fisher Products do not refer to shipping charges. The shipping documents issued by the carrier describe the Alabama addressee as the "consignee," the shipper as "Fisher Products-Norco, Hartwell, Georgia," and describes the freight as "pre-paid" or "third-party freight pre-paid" with instructions to bill to Norco at its address in California.

We conclude from the deposition testimony of Bowers and from the exhibits attached to that deposition that Fisher Products sold the products F.O.B., Hartwell, Georgia, and that Fisher Products facilitated shipment to the Alabama addressees by coordinating with the common carrier so that the goods were shipped from Fisher Products' Hartwell facility to the Alabama addressees, freight prepaid, with instructions to bill Norco in California for the shipping costs. From 1997 to 2000, the only years for which Fisher Products produced records, Fisher Products made 17 shipments of jacks and other products to Alabama addresses at Norco's instruction. Fisher Products' revenues from the 17 shipments totaled $15,296.98.

More commonly, Fisher Products ships jacks fabricated for Norco directly to one of Norco's warehouses, including one located in Atlanta, Georgia; Norco then distributes its products nationally.¹ Norco does not have a warehouse in Alabama. In response to Lagrone's interrogatories, Norco stated that pursuant to an oral agreement it has with Fisher Products, Norco may sell items manufactured by Fisher Products in any state. In his deposition, Bowers testified that Fisher Products did not restrict Norco from selling its products in any state. In 2000, Fisher Products fabricated 101 jacks for Norco; it shipped those jacks to various Norco warehouses. In 2000, Fisher Products had revenues of $79,765 from the sale of jacks to Norco. Norco ultimately delivered those jacks to customers in 21 states, including Alabama. The jack that allegedly caused Lagrone's injury was one of those jacks Fisher Products sold to Norco and shipped to the Norco warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia. Norco sold and shipped the jack to Alabama Jack, which, in turn, sold the jack to Lagrone. Norco stated in its answers to Lagrone's interrogatories that its only sales in Alabama were to Alabama Jack.

Fisher Products has never advertised in Alabama, has never directly solicited business in Alabama, and no Fisher Products employees have ever traveled to Alabama for business purposes.

Discussion

A writ of mandamus is an extraordinary form of relief available only when there is

"(1) a clear legal right in the petitioner to the order sought; (2) an imperative duty upon the respondent to perform, accompanied by a refusal to do so; (3) the lack of another adequate remedy; and (4) properly invoked jurisdiction of the court."

Ex parte United Serv. Stations, Inc., 628 So.2d 501, 503 (Ala.1993). See also Ex parte CUNA Mutual Ins. Soc'y, 822 So.2d 379, 382 (Ala.2001) (quoting Ex parte United Serv. Stations, Inc., 628 So.2d 501, 503 (Ala.1993)). The trial court's order denying Lagrone's motion to alter, amend, or vacate its order dismissing Lagrone's claims against Fisher Products for lack of personal jurisdiction was interlocutory; thus, a writ of mandamus is the appropriate remedy. Ex parte Paul Maclean Land Servs., Inc., 613 So.2d 1284, 1286 (Ala.1993). "An appellate court considers de novo a trial court's judgment on a party's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction." Elliott v. Van Kleef, 830 So.2d 726 (Ala.2002). See also Worthy v. Cyberworks Technologies, Inc., 835 So.2d 972 (Ala.2002).

"The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment limits the power of a state court to render a valid personal judgment against a nonresident defendant." World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 291, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980), citing Kulko v. Superior Court, 436 U.S. 84, 91, 98 S.Ct. 1690, 56 L.Ed.2d 132 (1978). Rule 4.2, Ala. R. Civ. P., Alabama's long-arm rule, "extends the personal jurisdiction of Alabama courts to the limits of due process under the federal and state constitutions." Elliott, 830 So.2d at 729; Sieber v. Campbell, 810 So.2d 641 (Ala.2001); Ex parte Pope Chevrolet, Inc., 555 So.2d 109, 110 (Ala.1989). Rule 4.2(2)(A)-(H) describes examples of the types of contacts with this State that may provide a basis for...