Excel Handbag Co., Inc. v. Edison Bros. Stores, Inc., s. 81-1385
| Decision Date | 22 March 1983 |
| Docket Number | 81-1525,Nos. 81-1385,s. 81-1385 |
| Citation | 428 So.2d 348 |
| Parties | EXCEL HANDBAG COMPANY, INC., Appellant/Cross-appellee, v. EDISON BROTHERS STORES, INC., Julian Edison, Eric Newman and Herbert Robinson, Appellees/Cross-appellants, |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Smith & Mandler and Patricia M. Silver, Miami Beach, for appellant/cross-appellee.
Fowler, White, Burnett, Hurley, Banick & Strickroot and Curtis Carlson, Pyszka & Kessler and William M. Douberley, Greene & Cooper and Sharon L. Wolfe, Miami, for appellees/cross-appellants.
Before NESBITT, BASKIN and FERGUSON, JJ.
This appeal is taken from an order of the trial court which dismissed with prejudice, for failure to state a cause of action, all three counts of a complaint. By cross-appeal, the individual defendants contend that the trial court should also have bottomed the dismissal on jurisdictional grounds.
On July 22, 1970, appellant, EXCEL, manufacturer of handbags, sued EDISON BROTHERS in federal court for breach of contract, seeking compensatory and punitive damages. EDISON BROTHERS defended and counterclaimed for commercial bribery. The court directed a verdict against EXCEL on the punitive damages claim, and the jury found compensatory damages for EXCEL in "an amount in excess of $100,000." The jury also rejected EDISON's counterclaim for commercial bribery. Both parties appealed.
The federal appeals court affirmed the damage award and further held that there should have been a directed verdict for EXCEL on the defense of commercial bribery. It also reversed the directed verdict on the punitive damages claim, holding that it presented a jury question. 630 F.2d 379 (5th Cir.1980).
On April 19, 1978, EXCEL brought this action in the Circuit Court of Dade County against EDISON BROTHERS, its president, EDISON, its vice-president and general counsel, NEWMAN, and its attorney, ROBINSON, who practices law in the State of New York. In the complaint it is alleged that EDISON BROTHERS, by and through its officers, maliciously and willfully counterclaimed in the federal action with intent to ostracize, discredit, and injure the reputation of EXCEL. As to the individual defendants, it is further alleged that they plotted, schemed and conspired to destroy EXCEL's business and its good reputation.
On motions of the individual defendants, the trial court dismissed Count I for failure to state a cause of action for malicious prosecution, dismissed Count II for failure to state a cause of action for abuse of process, and dismissed Count III for failure to state a cause of action for conspiracy to injure. The three individuals cross-appealed alleging that the trial court erred in denying their motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Considering first the cross-appeal, we reverse the trial judge's denial of the motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction over the individual defendants, EDISON, NEWMAN and ROBINSON. While a corporation itself may be subject to jurisdiction when it transacts business through its agents operating in the forum state, unless those agents transact business on their own account in the state, as opposed to engaging in business as representatives of the corporation, they are not engaged in business so as to be individually subject to the state's long-arm statute. Sec. 48.193(1)(a), Fl...
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