Juelich v. Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Corp.

• Decision Date: 14 October 2003
• Docket Number: No. A03-228., No. A03-174
• Citation: 670 N.W.2d 11
• Parties: James Donald JUELICH, Appellant, v. YAMAZAKI MAZAK OPTONICS CORPORATION, a/k/a Yamazaki Mazak Minokamo Corporation, Respondent, Mazak Nissho Iwai Corporation, Respondent, Gladwin Machinery & Supply Co., Defendant, Meikikou Corporation, Respondent, and Meikikou Corporation, Third Party Plaintiff, v. Aries Precision Sheet Metal Company, Third Party Defendant, and James Donald Juelich, Plaintiff, v. Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Corporation, a/k/a Yamazaki Mazak Minokamo Corporation, et al., Appellants, Gladwin Machinery & Supply Company, Defendant, Meikikou Corporation, Respondent, and Meikikou Corporation, third party plaintiff, Respondent, v. Aries Precision Sheet Metal Company, Third Party Defendant.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

670 N.W.2d 11

James Donald JUELICH, Appellant, v. YAMAZAKI MAZAK OPTONICS CORPORATION, a/k/a Yamazaki Mazak Minokamo Corporation, Respondent, Mazak Nissho Iwai Corporation, Respondent, Gladwin Machinery & Supply Co., Defendant, Meikikou Corporation, Respondent, and Meikikou Corporation, Third Party Plaintiff, v. Aries Precision Sheet Metal Company, Third Party Defendant, and James Donald Juelich, Plaintiff, v. Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Corporation, a/k/a Yamazaki Mazak Minokamo Corporation, et al., Appellants, Gladwin Machinery & Supply Company, Defendant, Meikikou Corporation, Respondent, and Meikikou Corporation, third party plaintiff, Respondent, v. Aries Precision Sheet Metal Company, Third Party Defendant.

Nos. A03-174, A03-228.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

October 14, 2003.

Cory P. Whalen, Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey, Ltd., and Wilbur W. Fluegel, Fluegel Law Office, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant James Juelich.

Robert D. Brownson, Kristi K. Warner, Brownson & Ballou P.L.L.P., Minneapolis, MN, for respondent Meikikou Corporation.

Carl Paul Carver, Kevin P. Curry, Bowman and Brooke, L.L.P., Minneapolis, MN, for appellant Mazak Nissho Iwai Corporation.

Blake W. Duerre, Anton J. van der Merwe, Arthur, Chapman, Kettering, Smetak & Pikala, P.A., Minneapolis, MN, for appellant Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Corporation.

Considered and decided by WILLIS, Presiding Judge; TOUSSAINT, Chief Judge; and SHUMAKER, Judge.

OPINION

TOUSSAINT, Chief Judge.

Appellant James Juelich, a Minnesota resident, was injured by a scissor-lift table manufactured by respondent Meikikou. Juelich sued Meikikou, appellant Yamazaki, the manufacturer of a component of the table, and appellant Mazak Corporation, an international distributor. The district court dismissed respondent Meikikou for lack of personal jurisdiction, and appellants challenge the dismissal in consolidated appeals. Because the district court did not err in concluding that there were insufficient contacts for personal jurisdiction and that respondent had not consented to personal jurisdiction by its actions in bringing a third-party lawsuit and engaging in cross-claims, we affirm.

FACTS

After a January 25, 2001 work-related injury, appellant James Juelich commenced this personal injury and products liability action in district court. Respondent Meikikou Corporation was first named in and served with the second amended complaint in June 2001.

Juelich's injury arose from his maintenance work on a scissor-lift table, which collapsed on his arm. The table was manufactured by respondent Meikikou Corporation, a foreign corporation with its principal place of business in Japan. The table was a component part of a Super Turbo X510 system that also included a laser-cutting machine manufactured by respondent Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Corporation (YMO), a Japanese corporation doing business in Japan. Respondent Mazak Nissho Iwai (MANI), an Illinois corporation, is the international distributor of the system purchased by Aries Precision Sheet Metal Company, a Minnesota corporation and Juelich's employer. The Minnesota supplier of the system, Gladwin Machinery & Supply Company, was dismissed from the suit by agreement of the parties.

On July 6, 2001, Meikikou answered the complaint and asserted lack of personal jurisdiction as an affirmative defense. It then served a cross-claim against Gladwin and a third-party claim against Aries and signed a stipulation allowing cross-claims among Meikikou, YMO, and MANI. Beginning October 30, 2001, Meikikou also commenced discovery, serving requests and responses.

On June 24, 2002, Meikikou moved for dismissal based on lack of personal jurisdiction. Juelich, YMO, and MANI opposed the motion to dismiss, which was heard, along with Juelich's motion to compel Meikikou to produce discovery, on September 26, 2002. In its October 1, 2002 order, the district court ordered Meikikou to completely answer discovery requests and to produce for deposition Meikikou representatives, including Tsutomu Odaguchi, its Managing Director and General Manager of Development.

After receiving letters and Odaguchi deposition excerpts submitted by Meikikou and YMO, the court granted Meikikou's motion to dismiss on November 15, 2002 and subsequently entered judgment on February 4, 2003. Juelich, filed a notice of appeal, which was followed shortly thereafter by YMO and MANI's joint appeals. The appeals were consolidated by this court.

The scissor-lift table involved in Juelich's accident was manufactured by Meikikou at its factory in Japan in 1999. Meikikou sold the table to Ishihara Shoji, a Japanese distributor. On instruction from Shoji, Meikikou delivered the table to Seiko Keisakusho. Meikikou understood at all times that the table would eventually be delivered to YMO and that the table was a component part to the YMO Super Turbo X510 laser-cutting machine, loading system and unloading system.

YMO integrated the table into its laser-cutting machine and sold the system to MANI, the Illinois distributor. MANI then sold the system to Gladwin, MANI's Minnesota distributor, which distributed it to Aries in St. Paul. YMO assembled its laser-cutting machine, but did not assemble the scissor-lift table. YMO did not provide any oral instructions or warnings to Juelich or Aries, but written warnings were provided on various machine labels and in the manuals. YMO provided a copy of an operation manual for the scissor-lift table to MANI, which supplied a copy to Aries. Neither Meikikou nor YMO provided post-sale or post-assembly inspection of the machine at Aries.

On July 3, 2000, Meikikou employees met with representatives of YMO and Ishihara Shoji in Japan to discuss, among other things, anticipated sales of the systems in the United States. Meikikou provided English warning labels for the tables, to be placed on the tables once they were installed in the YMO laser-cutting machine. Meikikou also provided an operation manual in Japanese that was to be used in preparing an English manual for the system. Meikikou was not involved in preparing the final manual that was provided with the system.

In October 2002, the court ordered Meikikou to produce for deposition Tsutomu Odaguchi. Odaguchi's testimony was the primary source of facts concerning Meikikou's manufacture of the scissor-lift table, Meikikou having previously provided only Odaguchi's unauthenticated affidavit and interrogatory answers. He stated that Meikikou has no involvement with the scissor-lift tables once they are delivered to Seiko in Japan. Meikikou does not sell scissor-lifts to United States customers directly; YMO is its customer. Meikikou would sell its products to Japanese companies, some of which would put the products in their overseas production.

Odaguchi also clarified that Meikikou produced English-language manuals for Japanese customers and English warning signs. If YMO alerted Meikikou that they would sell the product in another country, Meikikou would follow YMO's instructions to install safety valves or comply with other specifications particular to the product's destination.

MANI explained that it obtained the system used by Juelich about May 1999. MANI did not sell the scissor-lift table separately from the laser-cutting machine and considered it a part of the system. A MANI representative, in fact, was unaware that Meikikou was the manufacturer of the scissor-lift table. MANI sold the system to Gladwin in December 1999, and, on Gladwin's behalf, MANI shipped the items to Aries on March 27, 2000. MANI received the table as a completed unit from YMO. MANI did not assemble the table but positioned it and connected it to the system. MANI's service technician installed the equipment at Aries and trained Juelich and another employee.

MANI, as distributor of the system, has sent out safety notices relevant to the table. Its vice-president compiled a list of 122 locations, including 17 Minnesota locations, of the systems. On the request of YMO and Meikikou, MANI provided stoppers to Aries on about June 18, 2001. Stoppers were manufactured by Meikikou and used to hold the table during maintenance. No stoppers were provided with the table at the time it was purchased by MANI and resold to Gladwin.

Meikikou maintains a website that emphasizes Meikikou as a world player in the scissor-lift table field. Meikikou holds itself out as keeping the "richest assortment of world-specification-standardized hardware." The English language website sets out Meikikou's domestic and international associated companies, including four in the United States. It targets "you who use our product" and states that its scissor-lifts "are one of the best industrial devices used to carry load works vertically in the world."

ISSUE

1. Did the district court err in concluding that Meikikou had not waived its jurisdictional defense?

2. Did the district court err in granting respondent Meikikou's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction?

ANALYSIS

I.

Juelich contends that Meikikou consented to the district court's jurisdiction by filing a cross-claim against Gladwin and a third-party claim against Aries, stipulating to allowing cross-claims among YMO, MANI, and itself, and delaying its motion for dismissal until over one year after the action was commenced.

Generally, a defendant submits to the court's jurisdiction only by taking some affirmative step invoking the power of the court or implicitly recognizing its jurisdiction. 1 David F. Herr & Roger S. Haydock, Minnesota Practice § 12.17, at 346 (2002) (citing Peterson v. Eishen, 512 N.W.2d 338 (Minn.1994)). A defendant's actions can waive a jurisdictional defense even though it has properly raised the defense in its answer. Patterson v. Wu Family Corp., 608 N.W.2d 863, 868 (Minn. 2000). Defendants must not only comply with the letter of the rules regarding preservation of defenses and waiver, but also with the spirit of the rules. Id.

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