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Attaway v. Omega | |
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Court | Court of Appeals of Indiana |
Full case name | Marlene Attaway, Appellants-Defendants, v. Llexcyiss Omega and D. Dale York, Appellees-Plaintiffs. |
Decided | March 13, 2009 |
Citation(s) | 903 N.E.2d 73 |
Court membership | |
Judges sitting | Margret G. Robb, Terry A. Crone, Elaine B. Brown |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Crone, joined by Robb |
Concurrence | Brown |
Keywords | |
Attaway v. Omega, 903 N.E.2d 73 (Ind.App. 2009), [1] was a decision by the Indiana Court of Appeals in which the Court found personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant who bought a car on eBay then rescinded payment but returned the automobile at buyer's expense.
In 2006 Llexcyiss Omega and Dale York, Indiana residents, sold a Porsche to Marlene Attaway (“Attaway”), Idaho resident, on eBay. Attaway submitted payment through PayPal and the amount was charged to Attaways’ MasterCard account. Attaway then hired an auto transporter to pick up the car from Indiana and deliver it to her Idaho residence. When the car was delivered, Attaway felt it was “significantly not as described” in the eBay listing and filed a claim asking for a refund. Her claim was denied. However, she was able to convince MasterCard to rescind the payment. Omega and York filed suit against Attaway demanding payment. Attaway filed an answer and motioned to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction before the Clay County, Indiana small claims court. That court denied the motion to dismiss. Car was returned to seller at Attaway's expense and was supposedly sold at auction. No proceeds were determined.
Whether the Indiana court has personal jurisdiction over an Idaho defendant who rescinded payment on an online auction?
The Court breaks its analysis down into two components: United States Supreme Court personal jurisdiction precedent and specific cases, in other jurisdictions, regarding eBay sales and personal jurisdiction.
The Court summarizes the law of federal personal jurisdiction. International Shoe v. Washington the Supreme Court established that a nonresident defendant must have “certain minimum contacts with the forum state that does not offend tradition notions of fair play and substantial justice. [2] Furthermore, there are two types of personal jurisdiction, general and specific. Contacts which are “continuous and systematic” may subject the defendant to general jurisdiction. [3] Specific jurisdiction requires that the defendant has purposefully availed himself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum state and that he should reasonably anticipate being hauled into court there. [4]
If the defendant's contacts are sufficient to find either general or specific jurisdiction then the court must ask if personal jurisdiction would comport with “fair play and substantial justice.” The Supreme Court set forth five factors in Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz (1) burden on defendant; (2) forum state's interest in adjudicating the dispute; (3) plaintiff's interest in obtaining convenient and effective relief; (4) the interstate judicial system's interest in obtaining the most efficient resolution of controversies; and (5) shared interest of the several States in furthering fundamental substantive shared policies. [5]
The court then proceeds to analyze the case law of other jurisdictions regarding the same legal issue. In Dedvukaj v. Maloney, [6] a Michigan buyer sued a New York seller for breach of contract, fraud, and misrepresentation when the seller accepted buyer's payment but did not ship the items described in two eBay auction listings. The court considered many factors, and found that the seller had purposely availed itself of acting in Michigan. The court also discusses another eBay case, Boschetto v. Hansing , [7] in which a California buyer purchased a car from a Wisconsin seller via eBay. The buyer arranged for the car to be picked up and delivered to California. When the car arrived, the buyer found the vehicle to be in poor condition. The court dismissed the motion for lack of personal jurisdiction reasoning that the seller did not specifically direct his sale to California residents. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. The opinion also cites Machulsky v. Hall, [8] a case where an Oregon buyer purchased a set of coins from a New Jersey seller on eBay. The buyer upon receipt of the coin set claimed it was not the set he had ordered and shipped it back to the seller. A lawsuit resulted and the court found that a single purchase, without more, is not sufficient to exercise personal jurisdiction.
The Indiana Court of Appeals held, that although the present case does revolve around a single eBay purchase, there is personal jurisdiction and that it comports with traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. The court reasons that because the Attaways agreed to pick up the vehicle in Indiana, hired an auto shipping company to go to Indiana as their representative, pick up the car, and deliver it to Idaho, that the transaction was really more than just a single online purchase. Thus, the Attaways purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting activities in the forum state. The Court then considers the factors set forth in Burger King Corp v. Rudzewicz. The burden on the Attaways is no greater than the burden on Omega and York if they were forced to bring this case in Idaho. Furthermore, it is unclear whether travel expenses or inconvenience would be greater if the case is tried in Indiana. When weighing the interests of the states, “it is certainly within the bounds of fair play and substantial justice to allow Indiana to exercise personal jurisdiction over individuals who have entered into a contract with an Indiana resident for the purchase of property located in Indiana, have removed that property from the state of Indiana, and then rescinded payment.”
Personal jurisdiction is a court's jurisdiction over the parties, as determined by the facts in evidence, which bind the parties to a lawsuit, as opposed to subject-matter jurisdiction, which is jurisdiction over the law involved in the suit. Without personal jurisdiction over a party, a court’s rulings or decrees cannot be enforced upon that party, except by comity; i.e., to the extent that the sovereign which has jurisdiction over the party allows the court to enforce them upon that party. A court that has personal jurisdiction has both the authority to rule on the law and facts of a suit and the power to enforce its decision upon a party to the suit. In some cases, territorial jurisdiction may also constrain a court's reach, such as preventing hearing of a case concerning events occurring on foreign territory between two citizens of the home jurisdiction. A similar principle is that of standing or locus standi, which is the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case.
A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan or the never-never, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment and repays the balance of the price of the asset plus interest over a period of time. Other analogous practices are described as closed-end leasing or rent to own.
In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against the plaintiff, the defendant’s claims are “counterclaims.”
Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186 (1977), is a United States corporate law case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established that a defendant's ownership of stock in a corporation incorporated within a state, without more, is insufficient to allow that state courts to exercise jurisdiction over the defendant. The case set forth a framework for evaluating when a defendant will be deemed to have minimum contacts with the forum state sufficient for the exercise of jurisdiction to be consistent with due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310 (1945), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held that a party, particularly a corporation, may be subject to the jurisdiction of a state court if it has "minimum contacts" with that state. The ruling has important consequences for corporations involved in interstate commerce, their payments to state unemployment compensation funds, limits on the power of states imposed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the sufficiency of service of process, and, especially, personal jurisdiction.
Minimum contacts is a term used in the United States law of civil procedure to determine when it is appropriate for a court in one state to assert personal jurisdiction over a defendant from another state. The United States Supreme Court has decided a number of cases that have established and refined the principle that it is unfair for a court to assert jurisdiction over a party unless that party's contacts with the state in which that court sits are such that the party "could reasonably expect to be haled into court" in that state. This jurisdiction must "not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice". A non-resident defendant may have minimum contacts with the forum state if they 1) have direct contact with the state; 2) have a contract with a resident of the state; 3) have placed their product into the stream of commerce such that it reaches the forum state; 4) seek to serve residents of the forum state; 5) have satisfied the Calder effects test; or 6) have a non-passive website viewed within the forum state.
In common law jurisdictions, a misrepresentation is an untrue or misleading statement of fact made during negotiations by one party to another, the statement then inducing that other party to enter into a contract. The misled party may normally rescind the contract, and sometimes may be awarded damages as well.
Burger King v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462 (1985), is a notable case in United States civil procedure that came before the Supreme Court of the United States addressing personal jurisdiction.
World-Wide Volkswagen Corp v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286 (1980), is a United States Supreme Court case involving strict products liability, personal injury and various procedural issues and considerations. The 1980 opinion, written by Justice Byron White, is included in the first-year civil procedure curriculum at nearly every American law school for its focus on personal jurisdiction.
Personal jurisdiction in Internet cases refers to a growing set of judicial precedents in American courts where personal jurisdiction has been asserted upon defendants based solely on their Internet activities. Personal jurisdiction in American civil procedure law is premised on the notion that a defendant should not be subject to the decisions of a foreign or out of state court, without having "purposely availed" himself of the benefits that the forum state has to offer. Generally, the doctrine is grounded on two main principles: courts should protect defendants from the undue burden of facing litigation in an unlimited number of possibly remote jurisdictions, and courts should prevent states from infringing on the sovereignty of other states by limiting the circumstances under which defendants can be "haled" into court.
Burnham v. Superior Court of California, 495 U.S. 604 (1990), was a United States Supreme Court case addressing whether a state court may, consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident of the state who is served with process while temporarily visiting the state. All nine justices unanimously agreed that this basis for personal jurisdiction—known as "transient jurisdiction"—is constitutionally permissible. However, the Court failed to produce a majority opinion, as the members were sharply divided on the reasons for the decision, reflecting two fundamentally different approaches to how due-process issues are to be analyzed. Justice Scalia wrote the lead opinion, joined in whole or part by three other Justices. Justice Brennan wrote an opinion joined by three other Justices. Justices White and Stevens wrote separate opinions.
Dudnikov v. Chalk & Vermilion Fine Arts, Inc., 514 F.3d 1063, was decided by the Tenth Circuit in January 2008. The Tenth Circuit overturned a dismissal granted by the District Court upon a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction under FRCP12(b)(2). Dudnikov addresses the issues that arise regarding personal jurisdiction and the internet, applying standards set by the Supreme Court of the United States in a line of cases that progressively defined the doctrine and its scope in light of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Cybersell, Inc. v. Cybersell, Inc. was a trademark infringement case based on the use of an internet service mark. The United States District Court for the District of Arizona was asked to review whether the allegedly infringing use of a service mark in a home page on the World Wide Web suffices for personal jurisdiction in the state where the holder of the mark has its principal place of business. The Cybersell holding illustrated that passive websites do not establish personal jurisdiction outside the state in which they are based.
Bensusan Restaurant Corp. v. King, 126 F.3d 25, is a 1997 United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit case that helped define the parameters of personal jurisdiction in the Internet context, specifically for passive websites that only advertise local services. The opinion, written by Judge Ellsworth Van Graafeiland, affirmed the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York's holding that defendant Richard B. King's Internet website did not satisfy New York's long-arm statute requirements for plaintiff Bensusan Restaurant Corporation to bring a trademark infringement suit in New York. The District Court's decision also likened creating a website to merely placing a product into the stream of commerce, and held that such an act was insufficient to satisfy due process and personal jurisdiction requirements.
Pavlovich v. Superior Court, 29 Cal. 4th 262, is a California Supreme Court case in which the court declined to find personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant who had no personal contacts with California. The Court found that the posting of a misappropriated trade secret on a Web site which could result in harm to California residents was not sufficient to show he had purposely availed himself of the forum state by expressly aiming his conduct at residents of California.
Mavrix Photo, Inc. v. Brand Technologies, Inc., 647 F.3d 1218, is a case in American intellectual property law involving personal jurisdiction in the context of internet contacts.
Illinois v. Hemi Group, LLC, 622 F.3d 754, was a personal jurisdiction case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois' ruling finding personal jurisdiction based on Internet transactions. In the initial filing, the state of Illinois sued Hemi Group LLC (Hemi) for selling cigarettes to Illinois residents over the Internet in violation of state law and for failing to report those sales in violation of federal law. Hemi moved to dismiss the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction, but the district court found that the Internet transactions provided a basis for Hemi to be sued in Illinois.
Boschetto v. Hansing, 539 F.3d 1011 is a diversity jurisdiction case brought by California resident, Paul Boschetto ("Boschetto") against certain private corporations with their principal place of business in Wisconsin. The case involved the determination of the question whether the sale of an item via the internet consumer-to-consumer trading portal, eBay, by the defendants in Wisconsin to the plaintiff in California, was sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant in the buyer's forum state. At the first instance, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California decided against Boschetto and held that a lone “eBay sale consummated with a California purchaser, was insufficient to establish jurisdiction over any of the defendants.” Boschetto appealed against the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appellate court affirmed the decision of the district court and denied relief to Boschetto. The Court became the first federal appellate court to address whether personal jurisdiction in a forum state could be established when an out-of-state resident makes use of an intermediary website accessible by forum-state citizens.
Hearst Corp. v. Goldberger was a case out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in which the court developed a reasoned framework to determine the proper exercise of personal jurisdiction in cases involving activity in cyberspace. The court determined that it lacked jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant whose website was accessible to New York residents.
CollegeSource, Inc. v. AcademyOne, Inc., 653 F.3d 1066, was a United States legal case in which CollegeSource sued AcademyOne for a number of claims including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
Text of Attaway v. Omega is available from: CourtListener Findlaw Justia Leagle