Hospital Corp. of America v. Second Judicial Dist. Court In and For County of Washoe, HCA-H
| Decision Date | 30 September 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 28121,HCA-H,28121 |
| Citation | 924 P.2d 725,112 Nev. 1159 |
| Parties | HOSPITAL CORPORATION OF AMERICA, A Tennessee Corporation; Hospital Corporation of America, A West Virginia Corporation; Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation;ospital Corporation of America; and HCA Psychiatric Company, Petitioners, v. The SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT OF The STATE OF NEVADA, in and For The COUNTY OF WASHOE, and the Honorable Peter I. Breen, Respondents, and Marsha Robinson, Individually and Guardian Ad Litem of Melissa Banta, Kresnae Pagni, Patrick and Carma Sorenson, Gayle Homes, Willard Tucker, Tamera Anne Humphreys, and Barbara D'Anna. Real Parties in Interest. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
In this original petition, petitioners seek to have respondents' tort action against them dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. The dispute arises out of tortious conduct allegedly suffered by real parties in interest ("plaintiffs") while they were patients at a Nevada psychiatric hospital. The hospital was owned, at different times, by two Nevada corporations, both defendants in the underlying action. Petitioners, also defendants in the underlying action, are the foreign corporate parents or their successors of the domestic corporations and their successors. Petitioners seek extraordinary relief 1 from this court on the ground that the Nevada District Court does not have jurisdiction over their persons and therefore is without authority to proceed against them.
The district court denied petitioners' pretrial motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction after concluding that plaintiffs had adduced sufficient evidence of agency or control by the parent corporations to establish a prima facie showing of in personam jurisdiction. We have made a de novo review of the evidence presented to the district court and conclude that the district court reached the correct result. See Boit v. Gar-Tec Products, Inc., 967 F.2d 671, 678-79 (1st Cir.1992) (). Although this conclusion disposes of this matter, we emphasize that petitioners may still require plaintiffs to prove personal jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence at trial. 2
For the reasons set forth above, the petition for a writ of prohibition is denied.
1 The appropriate remedy for a district court's erroneous refusal to quash service of process is a writ of prohibition. Trump v. District Court, 109 Nev. 687, 692, 857 P.2d 740, 743 (1993).
2 NRCP 12(d) provides that a pretrial motion for dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction "shall be heard and determined...
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