V.H. v. Estate of Birnbaum

• Decision Date: 16 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. C0-94-1952,C0-94-1952
• Citation: 543 N.W.2d 649
• Parties: V.H., Respondent, v. The ESTATE OF Bernard F. BIRNBAUM, c/o Personal Representative Cleo Aufderhaar, Petitioner, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 649

543 N.W.2d 649

V.H., Respondent, v. The ESTATE OF Bernard F. BIRNBAUM, c/o Personal Representative Cleo Aufderhaar, Petitioner, Appellant.

No. C0-94-1952.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Feb. 16, 1996.

Syllabus by the Court

Under Minnesota's long-arm statute, a Minnesota court has in personam jurisdiction over the foreign personal representative of nonresident decedent if the nonresident decedent would have been subject to jurisdiction if alive.

The decedent's contacts with Minnesota, not those of the foreign personal representative of the decedent's estate, are the proper subject of a jurisdiction analysis under Minnesota's long-arm statute when it is the decedent who committed an act enumerated in the long-arm statute.

Contacts with Minnesota of a decedent who was a resident of Minnesota for 11 Review of Appeal from Certiorari to Court of Appeals.

years, was alleged to have committed tortious acts causing injury in Minnesota, and who voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of Minnesota courts in an unrelated action were sufficient to grant personal jurisdiction, notwithstanding the fact that the acts alleged in the complaint occurred more than 33 years prior to commencement of action.

Brian N. Johnson, Sheila T. Kerwin, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Michael J. Colgan, James G. Birnbaum, Dawn Marie Piselli, LaCrosse, WI, for respondent.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

Bernard F. Birnbaum was a resident of Texas at the time of his death and his estate is being probated in Texas with ancillary proceedings in Wisconsin. Respondent, V.H., a Minnesota resident, commenced an action in district court in Minnesota against the estate of her deceased father, Bernard F. Birnbaum. In her complaint, V.H. alleged that, when she was a minor, her father engaged in unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact with her. The district court dismissed V.H.'s action on the grounds that Minnesota courts lacked personal jurisdiction over her father's estate because the estate's personal representative did not have sufficient contacts with Minnesota to invoke the jurisdiction of its courts. V.H. appealed, arguing that the contacts of her father, not those of the personal representative of his estate, were the proper subject of a jurisdiction analysis, and that jurisdiction over the personal representative of her father's estate is proper under Minnesota's long-arm statute. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed the district court, concluding that Minnesota's long-arm statute allows for jurisdiction over a decedent's nonresident personal representative if the nonresident decedent would have been subject to jurisdiction if alive. The court of appeals also concluded that Birnbaum's conduct fell within the ambit of the long-arm statute. We affirm.

In 1994, V.H., a life-long Minnesota resident, filed a complaint in Hennepin County District Court, alleging that her father, Bernard F. Birnbaum, now deceased, engaged in unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact with her on two occasions between 1958 and 1960. This sexual contact occurred in the Birnbaum home in Minneapolis. V.H. alleged that as a result of her father's conduct, she developed feelings of shame, guilt, anger and repression, and that she suffered severe emotional distress and incurred continuing medical expenses. V.H. also alleged that she did not discover the nature of her injuries until 5 1/2 years prior to the filing of the complaint.

Birnbaum was married in Wisconsin on October 14, 1950. He and his wife moved to Minnesota in October of 1951, and they had two children, V.H., born on November 16, 1951, and a son, born on January 2, 1957. Birnbaum was divorced from V.H.'s mother in 1962 by a default judgment of divorce entered in Hennepin County District Court. Birnbaum consented to his wife's proceeding to trial on the divorce as a default matter. Birnbaum's wife was awarded custody of the two minor children. Birnbaum continued to reside in Hennepin County until November of 1962, when he moved to Texas where he resided until his death on February 7, 1993.

After Birnbaum's death, Cleo Aufderhaar, a personal friend of Birnbaum, was appointed the personal representative of his estate in Texas and in an ancillary proceeding in Wisconsin. Birnbaum's estate is valued at approximately $767,000. None of the estate's property has its situs in Minnesota.

V.H.'s complaint was personally served on Aufderhaar in San Antonio, Texas, and filed in Hennepin County District Court. Aufderhaar, in her capacity as personal representative of the estate, moved the district court to dismiss V.H.'s complaint based in part on lack of personal jurisdiction over her as personal representative of the estate. Aufderhaar asserted by affidavit that she has been a resident of Texas for the past 44 years, except for six years when she attended college. She has never lived in or owned property in Minnesota, nor has she conducted any business in Minnesota. She stated that she has been in Minnesota on three occasions: (1) after bringing Birnbaum to Wisconsin to visit his mother, she and Birnbaum drove to Minneapolis for lunch and sightseeing, returning to Wisconsin the same day; (2) on her way to Canada, she once traversed the state, taking only the time necessary to cross the state; and (3) after Birnbaum's death, she spent three or four hours at a farm owned by a relative of Birnbaum's, which farm is located just across the border from Wisconsin. She has never had a Minnesota bank account or telephone listing, nor has she ever been employed in Minnesota.

The district court granted Aufderhaar's motion to dismiss, ruling, among other things, that Aufderhaar did not have the requisite contacts with Minnesota to establish jurisdiction, and that Minnesota's long-arm statute does not apply because Aufderhaar did nothing which would bring her within its coverage. The district court also ruled that the sections of the Minnesota Probate Code governing foreign personal representatives and decedents do not confer jurisdiction in this case. See Minn.Stat. §§ 524.4-301 and .4-302 (1994).

V.H. appealed, and the court of appeals reversed the district court's dismissal of her complaint. The court of appeals concluded that Minnesota's long-arm statute does apply to a deceased nonresident's personal representative. The court also concluded that the long-arm statute allows for jurisdiction over a deceased's nonresident personal representative when the deceased nonresident would have been subject to jurisdiction if alive. Accordingly, the court analyzed Birnbaum's contacts with Minnesota, rather than Aufderhaar's, and concluded that Birnbaum had committed an act enumerated in the long-arm statute and that his contacts were sufficient to grant jurisdiction. Finally, the court concluded that the assertion of jurisdiction in this case comports with due process and remanded the matter to the district court for further proceedings.

I.

This appeal raises three issues. First, does Minnesota's long-arm statute grant jurisdiction over the foreign personal representative of the estate of a nonresident decedent who is alleged to have committed tortious acts in Minnesota? Second, if the long-arm statute grants jurisdiction, whose contacts with Minnesota are the proper subject for analysis, those of the foreign personal representative or those of the decedent? Third, under the facts of this case, does jurisdiction over the foreign personal representative by Minnesota courts comply with the statutory standards of the long-arm statute and comport with due process notions of fairness and substantial justice?

The fact that an alleged tortfeasor has left the state after a cause of action accrues and has established domicile elsewhere does not deprive this state of personal jurisdiction. See Duresky v. Hanson, 329 N.W.2d 44, 47 (Minn.1983). The determination of whether personal jurisdiction exists is a question of law. See Valspar Corp. v. Lukken Color Corp., 495 N.W.2d 408, 411-12 (Minn.1992) (stating that the district court does not have discretion in exercise of personal jurisdiction); Stanek v. A.P. I., Inc., 474 N.W.2d 829, 832 (Minn.App.1991), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. Oct. 31, 1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 977, 112 S.Ct. 1603, 118 L.Ed.2d 316 (1992). When jurisdiction is challenged, the plaintiff bears the burden of proving that sufficient contacts exist with the forum state to support personal jurisdiction. Larson v. Dunn, 460 N.W.2d 39, 43 (Minn.1990) (citing Hardrives, Inc. v. City of LaCrosse, 307 Minn. 290, 293, 240 N.W.2d 814, 816 (1976)). The allegations of the complaint, together with any supporting evidence, must be viewed as true for purposes of determining whether plaintiff has made a prima facie showing of personal jurisdiction. Larson, 460 N.W.2d at 43; Hardrives, 307 Minn. at 293, 240 N.W.2d at 816. Doubt should be resolved in favor of retention of jurisdiction. Hardrives, 307 Minn. at 296, 240 N.W.2d at 818.

We first address the issue of whether Minnesota's long-arm statute applies to grant jurisdiction over the foreign personal representative of a deceased nonresident who is alleged to have committed acts of unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact in Minnesota. Under Minnesota law, a cause of action against a deceased defendant survives to the personal representative of the deceased defendant. Minn.Stat. § 573.01 (1994). Aufderhaar, the duly-appointed personal representative of Birnbaum's estate, was personally served with V.H.'s summons and complaint in Texas, the state of her appointment, and is the proper person against whom to assert jurisdiction pursuant to section 573.01. In order to subject a foreign personal representative such as Aufderhaar to jurisdiction in Minnesota, the foreign personal representative must come within the ambit of the long-arm statute, and the exercise of jurisdiction must comport with...