Kathrein v. Parkview Meadows, Inc., 15545

• Decision Date: 29 November 1984
• Docket Number: No. 15545,15545
• Citation: 102 N.M. 75,1984 NMSC 117,691 P.2d 462
• Parties: Barbara KATHREIN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PARKVIEW MEADOWS, INC., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 462

691 P.2d 462

102 N.M. 75

Barbara KATHREIN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PARKVIEW MEADOWS, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 15545.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Nov. 29, 1984.

[102 NM 75] Martin & Hilton, P.A., Robert Hilton, Albuquerque, for plaintiff-appellee.

Miller, Stratvert, Torgerson & Brandt, P.A., Stephen M. Williams, Albuquerque, for defendant-appellant.

OPINION

FEDERICI, Chief Justice.

This case is before us on writ of certiorari from the Court of Appeals. The only issue raised is whether the defendant's contacts with the State of New Mexico were sufficient to constitute a "transaction of business" within the State, so that the defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction under the New Mexico long-arm statute, NMSA 1978, Section 38-1-16. The trial court denied a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and certified the question to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals stated that the defendant's activities within New Mexico did not rise to the level of transacting business, and held that the defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction should be granted. We reverse.

Barbara Kathrein, the plaintiff-petitioner (plaintiff), is a New Mexico resident. Parkview Meadows, Inc., the defendant-respondent (defendant) is a Minnesota corporation which operates an alcoholism treatment center, known as "The Meadows," in Arizona. At the time this cause of action arose, defendant carried on certain activities in New Mexico: defendant advertised its alcoholism treatment center in the yellow pages of the Albuquerque telephone directory for the years 1981 and 1982, and defendant contacted the director of the Albuquerque affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism to solicit his referral of patients to the treatment center. Plaintiff's husband attended the treatment program in Arizona, in August 1982. While her husband was undergoing treatment, plaintiff herself received in the mail a brochure from defendant, inviting her to attend the treatment program's "Family Week." An employee of defendant also telephoned plaintiff from Arizona, to encourage her attendance. In response to this solicitation, plaintiff attended Family Week, for which she was charged a fee.

The complaint alleges that as a result of her participation in Family Week, plaintiff suffered personal injury in the form of emotional and psychological trauma. Because process was served in Arizona and service was not obtained under NMSA 1978, Section 38-1-6, jurisdiction must be established under the long-arm statute, NMSa 1978, Section 38-1-16. The relevant portion of the statute provides for jurisdiction over any person who transacts "any business" within the state, as to any cause of action "arising from" that transaction of business. NMSA 1978, Sec. 38-1-16(A)(1).

The Court of Appeals held that defendant's ongoing solicitation activities in New Mexico--its solicitation of referrals and its advertising in the phone directory--did not bear a close relationship to the plaintiff's cause of action, and therefore could not be the basis of long-arm jurisdiction over defendant. The long-arm statute requires that the cause of action arise from the defendant's transaction of business within the State. However, defendant's invitation to plaintiff to attend the program's Family Week, and plaintiff's subsequent attendance, were an integral part of defendant's overall program of alcoholic treatment. The invitation followed by attendance were a direct outgrowth of defendant's general solicitation for business in New Mexico. This cause of action does arise out of defendant's solicitation of business in New Mexico.

The Court of Appeals further held that defendant's phone call to the plaintiff, and mailing of a brochure to her, were insufficient to constitute a transaction of business within New Mexico. The Court of Appeals apparently reasoned that some further impact within the State, beyond mere solicitation, is necessary if jurisdiction over defendant is to meet statutory and constitutional standards. Those acts, however, taken together with defendant's general solicitation activities within the State, were of sufficient magnitude, and were sufficiently related to the cause of action, that exercise by New Mexico courts of jurisdiction over defendant is proper.

The constitutional requirement relating to personal jurisdiction was announced in International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), in which the Court stated that, for due process standards to be met, the defendant need have only "certain minimum contacts" with the forum state "such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend 'traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.' " Such minimum contacts clearly existed in this case. Defendant's activities within the State were continuous and purposeful. Defendant availed itself "of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State, thus invoking the benefits and protections of its laws." Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 1240, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958).

New Mexico's statutory standard for obtaining long-arm jurisdiction has been "repeatedly equated" with the due process standard of "minimum contacts." Telephonic, Inc. v. Rosenblum, 88 N.M. 532, 534, 543 P.2d 825, 827 (1975). The Court of Appeals correctly noted that various factors are relevant in determining whether a nonresident defendan...