Riggs v. Coplon, 08-81-00116-CV

• Decision Date: 16 June 1982
• Docket Number: No. 08-81-00116-CV,08-81-00116-CV
• Citation: 636 S.W.2d 750
• Parties: James F. RIGGS, et al., Appellants, v. Julie COPLON, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 750

636 S.W.2d 750

James F. RIGGS, et al., Appellants, v. Julie COPLON, Appellee.

No. 08-81-00116-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, El Paso.

June 16, 1982.

Rehearing Denied July 28, 1982.

Richard B. Tanner, Sr., Dallas, for appellants.

Gardere & Wynne, David R. Snodgrass, Dallas, for appellee.

Before WARD, OSBORN and SCHULTE, JJ.

OPINION

OSBORN, Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment based upon and giving full faith and credit to a foreign judgment obtained by the Appellee against the Appellant in Superior Court of the State of California. We affirm.

Julie Coplon became closely acquainted with James Riggs while attending school in Dallas, where she was a classmate of Mr. Riggs' daughter. Mrs. Coplon subsequently obtained a graduate degree and went to work for an accounting firm in San Francisco. She passed her certified public accountant examinations. In August, 1974 she went to work for Bank of America, and while working in a training position in San Francisco was assigned to the task of reviewing and assimilating materials for various loan applications. During her employment for the bank, she was assigned the task of reviewing a $12,000,000.00 loan application from Surety Industries with headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

In late 1974, Mrs. Coplon called Mr. Riggs in Dallas and asked him if he could check out Surety Industries and Chris Christopher, the head of the company. She advised him this was a confidential matter. He told her she could trust him on the investigation. She called him again about the middle of December, but at that time he had no information. On December 26, he called her at her office at the bank in San Francisco and inquired if she would be in her office all day because he said he intended to do some checking and get back in touch with her. She said she would be in all day.

Mr. Riggs then proceeded to the offices of Surety Industries where he proceeded to indicate to some of its officers that he could help with a loan application at the Bank of America. He wanted a 1% commission in order to make a favorable recommendation. In order to assure the Surety officers of his contact, he called Mrs. Coplon while in their office and discussed the loan with her and after the call, he gave the Surety officials her number so that they could confirm the contact was with Bank of America. They did in fact check out the number. When Mr. Riggs called the second time to confirm to Mrs. Coplon that Surety Industries was all right and give his approval for the loan, Surety recorded his conversation, without him or Mrs. Coplon being aware of such recording. The officials at Surety concluded that this was a "shakedown" operation, and they reported the incident to the bank and Mrs. Coplon was fired in January, 1975.

After losing her job, Mrs. Coplon was off work several months and went through severe depression. She was a patient at a psychiatric clinic for several weeks. Mrs. Coplon sued Mr. Riggs in California and when he did not answer, she obtained a default judgment for $200,000.00 plus court costs. The present suit was brought to obtain a Texas judgment based upon the California judgment. Mr. Riggs answered the Texas suit and asserted that the California court had no jurisdiction over him and alleged that the foreign judgment was void and not entitled to full faith and credit. At the trial Julie Coplon, James Riggs and Joe B. Doorman, a vice-president for Surety Industries, all testified. There is little dispute in the facts. Riggs acknowledged contacting Surety, said he made the three calls to Mrs. Coplon at the bank in California and that on the third call he told her he had conducted his investigation and "Surety Industries looked okay." He denied saying that he could influence the loan and said the fee he was to receive was only for his investigation. He said he had no agreement to pay Mrs. Coplon anything or to split his fee with her.

Mr. Riggs does not do business in California and was never in the state concerning this transaction. His only contact with the state as to this transaction was to receive two calls from Mrs. Coplon, who was in California, and to make three calls back to her on December 26, 1974.

The first point of error asserts the California judgment was not entitled to full faith and credit because that court did not have in personam jurisdiction over Appellant. In O'Brien v. Lanpar Company, 399 S.W.2d 340 (Tex.1966), the court pointed out that the validity of a foreign judgment is controlled by the law of the state where the judgment was entered, but that the requirements of due process must be satisfied. In that case, the court held jurisdiction existed because the president of the Texas corporation went to the State of Illinois to retain the services of an attorney, who sued in that case for the unpaid balance due on his fee. Our case is not so simple because Mr. Riggs never appeared in California in regard to this transaction.

In considering California's jurisdiction over non-residents, the Supreme Court in Sibley v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 16 Cal.3d 442, 128 Cal.Rptr. 34, 546 P.2d 322 (Cal.1976) said:

Under Code of Civil Procedure section 410.10, a California court may exercise jurisdiction over nonresidents on any basis not inconsistent with the United States or California Constitutions. This section manifests an intent to exercise the broadest possible jurisdiction, limited only by constitutional considerations. (Buckeye Boiler Co. v. Superior Court, supra, 71 Cal.2d 893 at p. 898, 80 Cal.Rptr. 113, 458 P.2d 57; Quattrone v. Superior Court (1975) 44 Cal.App.3d 296, 302, 118 Cal.Rptr. 548.) As a general constitutional principle, a court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident individual so long as he has such minimal contacts with the state that "... the maintenance of the suit does not offend 'traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.' " (International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945) 326 U.S. 310, 316-317, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95, 102 citations omitted; Cornelison v. Chaney, 16 Cal.3d 143, 127 Cal.Rptr. 352, 545 P.2d 264.)

One of the recognized bases for jurisdiction in California arises when the defendant has caused an "effect" in the state by an act or omission which occurs elsewhere.

The California "effect" standard was before the court in Kulko v. California Superior Court, 436 U.S. 84, 98 S.Ct. 1690, 56 L.Ed.2d 132 (1978). In that case, a mother in California obtained a personal judgment for child support against a father who resided in New York after the parties' two children left their father and went to California to live with their mother. In concluding that the California court did not have personal jurisdiction over the father, the court said:

In light of our conclusion that appellant did not purposefully derive benefit from any activities relating to the State of California, it is apparent that the California Supreme Court's reliance on appellant's having caused an "effect" in California was misplaced.

The circumstances in this case clearly render "unreasonable" California's assertion of personal jurisdiction. There is no claim that appellant has visited physical injury on either property or persons within the State of California. Compare Hess v. Pawloski, 274 U.S. 352, 71 L.Ed. 1091, 47 S.Ct. 632 (1927). The cause of action herein asserted arises, not from the defendant's commercial transactions in interstate commerce, but rather from his personal, domestic relations.

Thus, we see there is a limit on the "effect" doctrine as applied in California law.

The question, then, is whether the three telephone calls to Julie Coplon in California and her subsequent loss of her job bring her suit in California against James Riggs within the "effect" doctrine as applied by California law, and, if so, whether the maintenance of the suit offends traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. The California courts have exercised jurisdiction over one who does some act with the intention of causing effects within the state. Quattrone v. Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles, 118 Cal.Rptr. 548, 44 Cal.App.3d 296 (Second District 1975). In that case, the court exercised jurisdiction over a Pennsylvania resident who prepared and submitted to a California company fraudulent financial data which resulted in his financial gain. A similar result was reached in Abbott Power Corporation v. Overhead Electric Company, 131 Cal.Rptr. 508, 60 Cal.App.3d 272 (Fourth District 1976). In that case, the court concluded that a New Mexico engineering firm was subject to jurisdiction in a California court even though it did no business in California. The defendant in that case mailed three letters to California which the court said resulted in an intentional interference in California with a contract between two California corporations. In discussing tort actions, the court quoted from the applicable California judicial council comment as follows:

" 'A state has a special interest in exercising judicial jurisdiction over those who commit torts within its territory. This is because torts involve wrongful conduct which a state seeks to deter, and against which it attempts to afford protection, by providing that a tortfeasor shall be liable for damages which are the proximate result of his tort.... Hence ... (i)t is reasonable that a state should exercise judicial jurisdiction...