Hoff v. Kempton, 81-298.
| Decision Date | 26 March 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-298.,81-298. |
| Parties | Beryl J. HOFF, Respondent, v. Merle S. KEMPTON, Appellant, Travelers Insurance Company, Garnishee. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Alex B. Leibel & Assoc. and Robert Drevlow, Minneapolis, for appellant.
Oberg & Mannikko and Joseph Mannikko, Wayzata, for respondent.
Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.
This is an appeal from an order denying defendant Kempton's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to Rush v. Savchuk, 444 U.S. 320, 100 S.Ct. 571, 62 L.Ed.2d 516 (1980). Upon request of defendant, the district court thereafter certified as "important and doubtful" pursuant to Minn.R.Civ.App.P. 103.03(i) the question of whether Rush v. Savchuk should be retroactively applied. We answer this question in the affirmative and reverse the order of the district court with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
This action arises out of an automobile accident which occurred on July 21, 1978, in Sioux City, Iowa. Plaintiff, Beryl J. Hoff, a Minnesota resident, commenced this action in Minnesota against defendant driver, Merle S. Kempton, an Iowa resident, by garnishing Kempton's auto insurance policy with Travelers Insurance Company under Minn.Stat. § 571.41, subd. 2 (1978). Hoff served Travelers with a pre-garnishment summons on March 8, 1979, through service on the Minnesota Commissioner of Insurance. Hoff then served the summons and complaint on defendant Kempton on March 27, 1979. It is undisputed that the only Minnesota asset of Kempton's is his Travelers insurance policy and that Kempton was and remains an Iowa resident. Kempton answered the complaint on April 26, 1979, by alleging, inter alia, that "the court herein lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter of this litigation and over the person of this answering Defendant."
On July 28, 1980, Kempton moved the court to issue an order dismissing this case for lack of jurisdiction. This motion was made 7 months after the date of the Rush v. Savchuk decision and 1 week after the Iowa statute of limitations had run for Hoff to commence an action in that state.
In Rush v. Savchuk, the United States Supreme Court clearly and unequivocally held that the so-called New York Seider1 attachment-of-insurance-policy method of establishing quasi-in-rem jurisdiction was unconstitutional as a denial of the out-of-state defendant's due process rights. Since jurisdiction over Kempton was established in precisely this fashion in the instant case, it is clear that if Rush applies, the district court will have to dismiss the action for lack of jurisdiction.2
The general rule is that, absent special circumstances or specific pronouncements by the overruling court that its decision is to be applied prospectively only, the decision is to be given retroactive effect. NLRB v. Lyon & Ryan Ford, Inc., 647 F.2d 745, 757 (7th Cir. 1981); Kremer v. Chemical Construction Corp., 623 F.2d 786, 788-89 (2d Cir. 1980); Note, Prospective or Retroactive Operation of Overruling Decision, 10 A.L.R.3d 1371, 1384 (1966). In Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 92 S.Ct. 349, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971), the United States Supreme Court announced a three-factor test to be used in determining whether an exception should be made to this general rule:
First, the decision to be applied nonretroactively must establish a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which litigants may have relied, * * * or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed * * *. Second, it has been stressed that "we must . . . weigh the merits and demerits in each case by looking to the prior history of the rule in question, its purpose and effect, and whether retrospective operation will further or retard its operation." * * * Finally, we have weighed the inequity imposed by retroactive application, for "where a decision of this Court could produce substantial inequitable results if applied retroactively, there is ample basis in our cases for avoiding the `injustice or hardship\' by a holding of nonretroactivity."
Id. at 106-07, 92 S.Ct. at 355 (citations omitted.)
1. The first factor is whether the new decision "establishes a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which litigants may have relied, * * or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed * * *." Id.
Kempton contends that Rush does not satisfy the requirements of this factor. He argues that Rush is not in fact an "overruling decision" at all because it merely reaffirmed the "minimum contacts" doctrine of International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), and Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 97 S.Ct. 2569, 53 L.Ed.2d 683 (1977). Furthermore, he argues, Rush was foreshadowed by the Shaffer decision and by the United States Supreme Court's 1978 remand of this court's initial Savchuk v. Rush decision, 311 Minn. 480, 245 N.W.2d 624 (1976), remanded, 433 U.S. 902, 97 S.Ct. 2964, 53 L.Ed.2d 1086 (1977).3 Thus, Kempton would have us find that Rush v. Savchuk does not satisfy either element of the first factor.
This argument is incorrect because it misperceives the issue: the question is not solely whether Rush overruled or changed federal due process law, but whether that decision changed the rules of law operating in early 1979, at the time Hoff commenced her suit. The answer to this question is, quite clearly, in the affirmative. In Minnesota, prior to Rush v. Savchuk, Seider-type jurisdiction was the law under Minn.Stat. § 571.41. This court twice reaffirmed that, in its view, the statute was constitutional. Therefore, from the point of view of a plaintiff deciding whether or not to come into Minnesota's courts to exercise a Seider garnishment, the effect of Rush v. Savchuk was very much to change precedent and establish a new principle of law in Minnesota. Cf. Holzsager v. Valley Hospital, 646 F.2d 792 (2d Cir. 1981) (); but see Saraceno v. S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 492 F.Supp. 979 (S.D. N.Y.1980) ().
2. The second Chevron factor is whether retrospective application of Rush v. Savchuk will further or retard operation of that rule. This is, essentially, a purposive inquiry. Hoff asserts that the due process goal of "fair play and substantial justice," International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. at 316, 66 S.Ct. at 158, will not be served by retroactive application of the Rush decision. We fail to understand the logic behind this assertion. Rush is designed to protect nonresident defendants from being dragged unfairly into a jurisdiction to which they have no relationship and in which they should not have to defend themselves. Applying Rush v. Savchuk retroactively will serve that goal. Accord, Holzsager v. Valley Hospital, 646 F.2d at 797; Saraceno v. S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 492 F.Supp. at 984.4
The third Chevron factor requires a weighing of the equities involved in a retroactive application of Rush v. Savchuk. There are obviously strong equities in Hoff's favor: if the Minnesota forum is closed to her, she will not be able to receive compensation for her injuries because there is no other available jurisdiction. Although Kempton is correct in responding that Hoff still had 7 months in which to file suit in Iowa after Rush was announced, Kempton did not file his motion to dismiss until after that time period expired. If the rule is applied prospectively, however, Kempton would only be forced to defend in a sister state a suit which he would have had to defend in his own state, had it been filed in time.
We recognize the harshness to Hoff of finding that Rush v. Savchuk is to be applied retroactively. We must note, however, that the United States Supreme Court in Rush applied its decision to an even more unyielding factual situation. The only forum available to plaintiff Savchuk was the State of Minnesota because Indiana — the situs of the car accident — has a guest statute which prevents suits by automobile passengers against their drivers. By holding that Minnesota did not have jurisdiction in that case, the decision in Rush v. Savchuk effectively denied all relief to Savchuk. The court therein gave no indication that its decision should not be applied retroactively in other cases. Following the lead of the United States Supreme Court in Rush v. Savchuk, we find the equities in the instant appeal do not militate against the retroactive application of that decision. Accord, Holzsager v. Valley Hospital; Saraceno v. S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Finally, we observe that in a recent case involving a question of subject matter jurisdiction, not personal or quasi-in-rem jurisdiction, the United States Supreme Court stated that:
If the appellate court finds that the order from which a party seeks to appeal does not fall within the statute, its inquiry is over. A court lacks discretion to consider the merits of a case over which it is without jurisdiction, and thus, by definition, a jurisdictional ruling may never be made prospective only.
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord, 449 U.S. 368, 379, 101 S.Ct. 669, 676, 66 L.Ed.2d 571 (1981). See also Holzsager v. Valley Hospital, 646 F.2d at 798 (Meskill, J., concurring) ().5
We hold that the rule of Rush v. Savchuk is to be applied retroactively to all cases pending in the State of Minnesota as of the date of the decision in Rush and in which Seider attachments served as the sole basis of establishing jurisdiction over the defendant. Therefore, the instant appeal is reversed and remanded with instructions to the district...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Darwin Stately v. Red Lake Builders, A10-1909
...the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals filed September 30, 2010, be, and the same is, affirmed without opinion. See Hoff v. Kempton, 317 N.W.2d 361, 366 (Minn. 1982) (explaining that "[s]ummary affirmances have no precedential value because they do not commit the court to any particular......