Pohlmann v. Bil-Jax, Inc., BIL-JA

• Decision Date: 02 June 1999
• Docket Number: BIL-JA,No. 98-2856,INC,98-2856
• Parties: Larry POHLMANN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1110

176 F.3d 1110

Larry POHLMANN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BIL-JAX, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 98-2856.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 10, 1999

Decided June 2, 1999.

Timothy E. Gammon, Springfield, MO, argued (John H. Allan, Clayton, MO, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant.

John E. Galvin, St. Louis, MO, argued for Defendant-Appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, LOKEN, and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judges.

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

A scaffold collapsed in August 1989, injuring carpenter Larry Pohlmann. Pohlmann sued the manufacturer, Bil-Jax, Inc., in a Missouri state court. Bil-Jax answered, asserting lack of personal jurisdiction as a defense. After a trial, the jury returned a $2,000,000 verdict in favor of Pohlmann. The trial court ordered a new trial or a remittitur to $362,339. Pohlmann refused the remittitur and appealed the grant of a new trial. The Missouri Court of Appeals remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint "without prejudice" for lack of personal jurisdiction. Pohlmann v. Bil-Jax, Inc., 954 S.W.2d 371, 374 (Mo.App.1997).

Pohlmann then filed this action in Missouri state court. The second complaint recited the dismissal of his prior suit without prejudice, reasserted causes of action for strict liability and negligence, and added claims for punitive damages and prejudgment interest. Bil-Jax removed, invoking the district court's diversity jurisdiction, and moved to dismiss on the ground that the prior Missouri Court of Appeals decision precluded Pohlmann from relitigating the personal jurisdiction issue. The district court agreed, dismissing the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction because "the personal jurisdiction issue has already been decided by the Missouri courts." Pohlmann appeals. Concluding that the preclusion issue is not so cut-and-dried, we reverse and remand.

The district court's jurisdiction over the person of defendant Bil-Jax in this diversity case turned on whether Bil-Jax was amenable to the personal jurisdiction of the state court and had been validly served prior to removal. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(k)(1)(A); Omni Capital Int'l v. Rudolf Wolff & Co., 484 U.S. 97, 108 S.Ct. 404, 98 L.Ed.2d 415 (1987). To resolve that issue, we must determine whether Pohlmann's second suit is precluded because the Missouri Court of Appeals dismissed his first suit, without prejudice, for lack of personal jurisdiction. The district court correctly stated the governing principle of federal law--"federal courts must give state court judgments the same preclusive effect they would be given by other courts in the state from which the judgment emerged." Butler v. City of North Little Rock, 980 F.2d 501, 503 (8th Cir.1992).

Pohlmann argues the Missouri Court of Appeals decision is entitled to no preclusive effect because it was a dismissal without prejudice that did not adjudicate the merits of his claims and left him free to commence another action. We generally agree that dismissal of a case without prejudice does not result in claim preclusion (to use more venerable terminology, it creates no res judicata bar). But an issue actually decided in a non-merits dismissal is given preclusive effect in a subsequent action between the same parties (in the older terminology, the first adjudication creates a collateral estoppel). Many cases have given this kind of preclusive effect to rulings on personal jurisdiction as well as other jurisdiction issues. See e.g., Deckert v. Wachovia Student Fin. Servs., 963 F.2d 816 (5th Cir.1992); Kitces v. Wood, 917 F.Supp. 338 (D.N.J.1996); 18 J.WM. MOORE ET AL., MOORE'S FEDERAL PRACTICE § 132.03[c] (3d ed.1999). The Supreme Court of Missouri invoked this doctrine in holding that a dismissal without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction barred another action in Missouri for the same cause. See Healy v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R.R., 287 S.W.2d 813, 815 (Mo.1956). Indeed, that Court has frequently noted the potential preclusive effect of non-merits dismissals in deciding that such dismissals are appealable orders. See Chromalloy Am. Corp. v. Elyria Foundry Co., 955 S.W.2d 1, 3 (Mo. banc 1997) (dismissal for lack of jurisdiction); Douglas v. Thompson, 286 S.W.2d 833, 834 (Mo.1956) (dismissal because petition lacked required plaintiff's address). If the Missouri Supreme Court would apply this doctrine to preclude relitigation of the issue of personal jurisdiction, we must affirm.

Under Missouri law, the first question in deciding whether collateral estoppel applies is "whether the issue decided in the prior adjudication was identical with the issue presented in the present action." Oates v. Safeco Ins. Co., 583 S.W.2d 713, 719 (Mo. banc 1979). In this case, the district court defined "the issue" as "the question of personal jurisdiction in Missouri." But in Missouri, as in other jurisdictions, the issue of personal jurisdiction turns on whether the trial court has jurisdiction over the person of a defendant at the time the suit is commenced. See Bridges v. Bridges, 559 S.W.2d 753 (Mo.App.1977); accord Klinghoffer v. S.N.C. Achille Lauro, 937 F.2d 44, 52 (2d Cir.1991); Asarco, Inc. v. Glenara, Ltd., 912 F.2d 784, 787 n. 1 (5th Cir.1990); 4 CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT & ARTHUR R. MILLER, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1051, at 161-62 (2d ed.1987). In some cases, resolving that issue requires findings as to the parties' contacts with the forum State "at the time of the events underlying the dispute." Steel v. United States, 813 F.2d 1545, 1549 (9th Cir.1987). But the court's personal jurisdiction is time sensitive in each case. The issue of whether the Missouri trial court had personal jurisdiction over Bil-Jax when Pohlmann commenced his first suit in November 1993 is not identical to the issue whether that court had personal jurisdiction over...