Saez Rivera v. Nissan Mfg. Co.
| Decision Date | 23 April 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85-1774,85-1774 |
| Citation | 788 F.2d 819 |
| Parties | Jesus SAEZ RIVERA, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. NISSAN MANUFACTURING CO., et al., Defendants, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Rafael A. Oliveras Lopez De Victoria, Hato Rey, P.R., for plaintiffs, appellants.
Jay A. Garcia Gregory with whom Salvador Antonetti-Zequeira, Diego A. Ramos, Fiddler, Gonzalez & Rodriguez, Hato Rey, P.R., Richard P. Campbell, Timothy Wilton, Susan E. Berry and Campbell and Associates Professional Corp., Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendants, appellees.
Before CAMPBELL, Chief Judge, BREYER and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges.
In October 1982 plaintiff Jesus Saez Rivera was involved in an automobile accident. At the time of the accident, he was apparently driving a Datsun Model 210 automobile manufactured by Nissan Motor Company. One year later, Saez and others filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico against the "Nissan Manufacturing Co.," alleging defects in the manufacture and design of the vehicle.
Nissan is a foreign corporation based in Japan. Under both Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(d)(3) and Puerto Rico Rule of Civil Procedure 4.4(e), 1 one way of serving process upon a foreign corporation is to deliver a copy of the summons and the complaint to "an officer, a managing or general agent, or any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process[.]" Plaintiffs served a summons upon an employee in Nissan's liaison office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nissan moved to quash service, accompanying its motion with an affidavit from the manager of its legal department stating that neither the office nor any employee in it was authorized to accept service of process on behalf of Nissan. Plaintiffs filed no opposition to the motion. The district court therefore quashed the summons, and it dismissed the action for lack of personal jurisdiction over the defendant. Plaintiffs took no appeal, and the district court's order became final.
Some months later, plaintiffs filed another complaint, identical to the first, in the district court. Once again, plaintiffs attempted service by delivering a summons and a copy of the complaint upon an employee of Nissan's liaison office in San Juan. Upon motion of Nissan, accompanied by an affidavit reiterating that no one in the liaison office was authorized to accept service for Nissan, the court again quashed service. This time, plaintiffs appealed, claiming that their service of process was proper.
The case law is clear that a dismissal for improper service is without prejudice to refiling the case. That is, plaintiffs' substantive claim was not extinguished by operation of res judicata when the district court dismissed their first action. The dismissal did have the effect of precluding relitigation of those matters actually decided in the first litigation, however. 2A J. Moore & J. Lucas, Moore's Federal Practice p 12.14, at 12-100 (2d ed. 1985). It was actually determined in the first litigation that no employee of the liaison office was at that time authorized to accept service of process on behalf of Nissan, thus nullifying the method of service then undertaken. Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(d)(3); Puerto Rico Rule of Civil Procedure 4.4(e). This would perhaps not have collaterally estopped plaintiffs from later litigating whether service upon another liaison office employee was proper if they could show that the liaison office had since come to employ someone having the requisite authority, but no such evidence was tendered. 2
Here, Nissan...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Lee v. Carlson
...action is denied without prejudice to the commencement of an action against the United States. So ordered. 1 Saez Rivera v. Nisson MFG. Co., 788 F.2d 819, 821 n. 2 (1st Cir.1986); Familia De Boom v. Arosa Mercantil, S.A., 629 F.2d 1134, 1139 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 1008, 101 ......
-
Apollo Technologies v. Centrosphere Indus.
...F.2d 881, 888-89 (1st Cir.1988) (service on Panamanian corporation effective when served on corporate officer); Saez Rivera v. Nissan Mfg. Co., 788 F.2d 819, 821 (1st Cir.1986) (service on Japanese corporation proper if served on officer); United States v. Toyota Motor Corp., 561 F.Supp. 35......
-
Koulkina v. City of New York
...service of process [is] upon plaintiffs.'" King v. Best Western Country Inn, supra, 138 F.R.D. at 43, quoting Saez Rivera v. Nissan Mfg. Co., 788 F.2d 819, 821 n. 2 (1st Cir.1986). Here, Smock has not adequately specified how service upon him was deficient for purposes of invoking a Rule 12......
-
Ingersoll Mill. Mach. Co. v. M/V Bodena
...judge from making his own independent finding. Saylor v. Lindsley, 391 F.2d 965, 968 (2d Cir.1968); see also Saez Rivera v. Nissan Mfg. Co., 788 F.2d 819, 821 (1st Cir.1986).6 The meaning of a "clean" bill of lading is one firmly established by the custom and practice of the maritime indust......