Jeans v. Mitchell
| Decision Date | 15 September 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 2-76-Civ-197.,2-76-Civ-197. |
| Citation | 418 F. Supp. 730 |
| Parties | James F. JEANS, Plaintiff, v. Willa M. MITCHELL and Huldina M. Gray, Defendants, and General Casualty Company of Wisconsin, Garnishee. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
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Marvin E. Lundquist, Winter, Lundquist, Sherwood, Athens, & Pedersen, Mankato, Minn., for plaintiff.
C. Allen Dosland, Gislason, Dosland, Hunter, & Malecki, New Ulm, Minn., for defendants and garnishee.
The issue raised by the present motion is whether or not a Minnesota federal court has quasi-in-rem jurisdiction over an action arising from an automobile accident in South Dakota brought by a Minnesota resident against two nonresidents in which plaintiff has garnished the automobile insurer who wrote the policy which allegedly provides coverage for defendants' potential liability. Defendants have moved to dismiss the action on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction over defendants, insufficiency of service of process, and improper venue. The parties have agreed to submit this issue on briefs without oral argument.
The automobile accident which gave rise to this litigation occurred on December 3, 1973 in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. Defendant Mitchell, at that time a resident of Illinois and presently a resident of Florida, was driving a car owned by defendant Gray, a resident of Iowa, which was insured by the garnishee, a Wisconsin corporation doing business in Minnesota. The car collided with that owned by plaintiff who was at that time and is presently a resident of Minnesota. Suit was filed on June 7, 1976. Defendant Gray was personally served at her home in Illinois. It appears that no personal service has been made upon defendant Mitchell in either Illinois or Florida. The garnishee was given notice of this lawsuit by means of a garnishee summons which was served upon the Minnesota Commissioner of Insurance as the garnishee's appointed agent for process under Minn.Stat. § 60A.19. It is clear and undisputed by the parties that in personam jurisdiction cannot be asserted over the defendants. Tunnell v. Doelger and Kirsten, Inc., 405 F.Supp. 1338 (D.Minn.1976). Thus, the assertion of jurisdiction must rest on the garnishment of the insurance policy.
The procedure for determining whether or not jurisdiction is properly asserted over a non-resident is two-fold. First, the court must determine that there is a state statute which authorizes such jurisdiction. If so, then the court must decide if the assertion of jurisdiction comports with the requirements of due process as developed by the federal courts. Plaintiff contends that the Minnesota pre-judgment garnishment statute, Minn.Stat. § 571.41(2), authorizes quasi-in-rem jurisdiction in the case at bar. This statute provides in relevant part:
The Minnesota Supreme Court has recently interpreted this statute in Savchuk v. Rush, et al., (1976), Minn., 245 N.W.2d 624. It adopted the reasoning of the first case to consider this issue, Rintala v. Shoemaker, 362 F.Supp. 1044 (D.Minn.1973), in which Judge Neville exhaustively examined prior Minnesota case law and legislative enactments and determined that the statute authorized jurisdiction in a case presenting substantially similar facts as those presented in the litigation at hand. This case has been followed in three other Minnesota federal district court cases, Adkins v. Northfield Foundry and Machine Co., 393 F.Supp. 1079 (D.Minn.1974); Bak v. Sneiderman, et al., No. 4-75-Civ. 123 (D.Minn., filed July 21, 1975); and Reiter v. Freeburg, No. 4-75-Civ. 145 (D.Minn., filed June 24, 1975). The court approves the rationale of these cases and holds that Minn.Stat. § 571.41(2) applies to the present litigation.
Rintala v. Shoemaker and Savchuk v. Rush also explored the constitutional problems regarding the assertion of quasi-in-rem jurisdiction over an insurance policy issued by an insurance company doing business in the forum state. The courts found that the due process requirements enumerated in Aftanase v. Economy Baler Co., 343 F.2d 187 (8th Cir. 1965) were satisfied provided: (1) proper notice was given to the defendant-insured; (2) the potential exposure of the defendant was limited to the coverage limits of the insurance policy; and (3) the plaintiff was a resident of the forum state. The first requirement fulfills the dictates of Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank and Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950); the second insures that quasi-in-rem jurisdiction will not be impermissibly converted into in personam jurisdiction; and the third prevents forum shopping and provides the forum state with an interest sufficient to satisfy the dictates of due process. Again, the court adopts the rationale of the previous cases and holds that if these three safeguards are present, the assertion of quasi-in-rem jurisdiction meets the...
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TUC Electronics, Inc. v. Eagle Telephonics, Inc.
...235, 102 S.Ct. 252, 70 L.Ed.2d 419 (1981); see, e.g., Michell v. General Motors, 439 F.Supp. 24, 26 (N.D. Ohio 1977); Jeans v. Mitchell, 418 F.Supp. 730, 734 (D.Minn.1976); Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 0.1456. — 1 at 1635 (1974). Where the preferred alternative forum is a federal district cou......