In Huffaker v. Eagle Fuel Cells, Inc., the United States District Court for the Southern District of California declined to exercise personal jurisdiction over Eagle Fuel Cells, Inc. ("Eagle"), and dismissed the claims against it without prejudice.

The lawsuit against Eagle arose from a 2017 airplane crash in Utah that resulted in the death of a Utah couple. Plaintiffs—the family members of the two decedents—alleged that the subject aircraft was equipped with a fuel drain valve that was "designed, manufactured, overhauled, inspected, and distributed" by Eagle, which failed to drain water from the fuel system, causing the aircraft to lose power at the time of the crash.

Eagle, a company incorporated in Wisconsin with its principal place of business in Wisconsin, moved to dismiss the action for lack of personal jurisdiction, arguing that the Court lacked both general and specific jurisdiction. The Court agreed.

First, the Court noted that plaintiffs did not oppose Eagle's argument that general jurisdiction was inappropriate since the "paradigm bases for general jurisdiction"—the place of incorporation and principal place of business—were located in Wisconsin. Moreover, the Court found that Eagle's contacts with California were not "so continuous and systematic [as] to render it 'at home' in [the State]," because Eagle did not "transact or solicit business, maintain offices or any other places of business, own real property, or have any clients or employees in California."

The Court further held that the "exercise of specific personal jurisdiction over [Eagle] would offend due process." In reaching its decision, the Court found that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that Eagle purposefully directed its activities toward California residents. In particular, the record reflected that California did not have a "'manifest interest' in providing its residents with a convenient forum ... because 'no California residents are party to this suit.'" The decedents and the plaintiffs were all residents of Utah. Moreover, although plaintiffs sold and shipped the valve to a recipient in California, that recipient was not a party to the action; "Plaintiffs [did] not claim that [the] recipient [of the valve] suffered any harm in California, let alone had any connection to the Subject Aircraft at the time of the crash[;] ... and perhaps more importantly, ... fail[ed] to allege that any harm that gives rise to this litigation was sustained in California."

Finally, the Court concluded that Eagle did not purposefully avail itself of the privilege of conducting business in California because there was no evidence that Eagle "engaged in significant activities ... or [] created 'continuing obligations' between itself and the residents ... such that '[it] should reasonably anticipate being haled into court there." To the contrary, there was no evidence of Eagle's presence in California. Instead, plaintiffs only alleged that Eagle "maintains a 1-800 number, which CA residents can call without incurring charges; ... allows customers to request a quote online; performs services across North America and around the country; ... sold a defective drain valve to a California resident[; and] ... mail[ed] a product to a non-party California resident in 2007, ten years before the aircraft crash occurred." Accordingly, the Court granted Eagle's motion to dismiss.

The Court, however, granted plaintiffs 45 days to conduct jurisdictional discovery to determine the extent of Eagle's sales of their products and services in California, and leave to amend their complaint within 20 days of the conclusion of jurisdictional discovery.

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