Valley Wide Health Services, Inc. v. Graham
| Decision Date | 30 June 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 17097,17097 |
| Parties | VALLEY WIDE HEALTH SERVICES, INC., Petitioner, v. David GRAHAM, Personally and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Angel Renee Archuleta Graham, and Clarissa D. Archuleta, Respondents. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Plaintiff-respondent David Graham filed a wrongful death action in New Mexico district court against a Colorado health care clinic. The trial court granted the motion of defendant-petitioner Valley Wide Health Services, Inc. (Valley) to dismiss under SCRA 1986, 1-012(B)(1), determining it lacked personal jurisdiction over Valley because Valley did not have sufficient minimum contacts with New Mexico to satisfy constitutional due process.
The court of appeals reversed the trial court. We granted certiorari and, upon review of the petition, response thereto, and the court of appeals file, we reverse the court of appeals.
The only issue before us is whether Valley had sufficient minimum contacts with New Mexico to satisfy constitutional due process and thus to allow New Mexico to exercise personal jurisdiction under the long-arm statute, NMSA 1978, Section 38-1-16.
Valley is a non-profit Colorado corporation not licensed to do business in New Mexico. It operates five health care clinics in Southern Colorado, and has never operated a health clinic in New Mexico. Valley does not advertise in New Mexico, is not listed in any telephone book in New Mexico, and does not actively solicit patients from New Mexico. Medical services are provided to anyone who comes to the clinics, including New Mexico residents. Less than 1% of Valley's total patients have been New Mexico residents and, in 1983, only 1.38% of Valley's long distance telephone calls were made from the clinics to New Mexico numbers. On occasion the doctors at the clinics would give advice over the telephone.
Graham, a New Mexico resident, telephoned Valley's San Luis Health Center to make an appointment for his daughter who was running a high temperature. Later that day, Graham took his daughter to the Colorado clinic where she was examined by Dr. Ronald Gooder. Dr. Gooder determined she had a virus, and prescribed cold baths and alternate doses of aspirin and Tylenol. Two days later Graham telephoned Dr. Gooder at the clinic to advise that his daughter's temperature was still high, and that she had begun to vomit. Dr. Gooder, who was not immediately available, returned Graham's telephone call at Graham's New Mexico residence. It was the doctor's opinion that the virus was running its course and that Graham should continue the recommended treatment. The next day Graham's daughter died of peritonitis, secondary to pneumonia.
The court of appeals held that although Graham's daughter was taken to Colorado to be seen by the doctor, treatment was originally prescribed in Colorado and as a result of the doctor-patient relationship which was established in Colorado, Dr. Gooder was compelled to make the telephone call to Graham at his New Mexico residence; and that single act of returning Graham's telephone call to New Mexico was sufficient for personal jurisdiction.
In order to invest the courts of this State with personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant, the act plaintiff complains of...
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