S.G.A. SCIENTIFIC, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
GRADY LEE RHODES AND META LOIS RHODES, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1985-08-28
No. BF-465
BOOTH, C.J., and JOANOS, J., concur.
474 So. 2d 425 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1985) Caution
Cited by 3 cases

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Holding

A civil claim under RICO requires injury caused by the defendant's violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962, not solely by the predicate offenses themselves.


Headnotes

[1] A foreign corporation must have certain minimum contacts with a state to be subject to personal jurisdiction, such that maintaining the suit does not offend traditional n…

[2] A foreign corporation must purposely avail itself of the privilege of conducting activities within a state to establish minimum contacts, and mere foreseeability of the p…

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Facts & Procedural History

Plaintiffs alleged a bank fraudulently charged excessive interest rates by lying about its prime rate, causing them financial injury. The District Cou…

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Opinion of the Court
MILLS, Judge.

MILLS, Judge.

S.G.A. Scientific, Inc. (SGA) appeals from an interlocutory order denying its motion to abate for lack of personal jurisdiction. We affirm.

Appellee Grady Lee Rhodes was injured while dispensing petroleum products from a fuel tanker when the “sight glass,” which allowed him to view the progress of the product, shattered. SGA was one of several companies which handled the glass tubing before its eventual installation into the tanker. The tubing was manufactured by Corning Glass Works, then cut by SGA, a New Jersey corporation, into the lengths specified by another New Jersey company, Parker Hannifin. Parker then incorporated the glass into valves, which it sold to a manufacturer of fuel tankers; the tanker herein was sold to Chevron Oil Company and delivered and titled in Florida.

Rhodes sued SGA, alleging the existence of personal jurisdiction under Florida’s “long arm statute,” Section 48.193, Florida Statutes (1981). The statute sets forth the acts which will warrant the exercise of the jurisdiction of Florida courts. In this case, the relevant act is described in subsection (f). It reads:

Causes injury to persons or property within this state arising out of an act or omission outside of this state by the defendant, provided that at the time of the injury either:
1. The defendant was engaged in solicitation or service activities within this state which resulted in such injury; or

2. Products, materials, or things processed, serviced, or manufactured by the defendant anywhere were used or consumed within this state in the ordinary course of commerce, trade, or use, ...

Two previous motions by SGA to abate for lack of personal jurisdiction were granted, when the initial and first amended complaints were found not to allege sufficient contacts with the State of Florida. A second amended complaint alleged that SGA had serviced, processed and manufactured the glass by cutting and selling it to Parker, and that it did so knowing that the glass would be installed in valve units for dissemination throughout the United States. SGA made the instant motion to abate in respect to this amendment, again alleging insufficient allegations of connexity with Florida and of facts showing SGA purposely availed itself of the privilege of doing business in Florida. The trial court denied the motion without explanation, and this appeal followed.

Before a state court can acquire personal jurisdiction over a foreign corporation, that corporation must have certain minimum contacts with the state so that maintenance of the suit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945). There must be some act by which the foreign corporation purposely avails itself of the privilege of conducting activities in the state, thereby invoking the benefits and protection of its laws. Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958). This “purposely availed” standard is not met simply by the foreseeability of the product entering the state; mere indirect economic benefit is not sufficient to show minimum contacts. World-Wide Volkswagen v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980).

Several Florida decisions have applied these principles to various factual situations in an attempt to determine the existence of personal jurisdiction. In Ford Motor Co. v. Atwood Vacuum Machine Co., 392 So. 2d 1305 (Fla.1981), Ford filed a third-party complaint against Atwood after being sued by a Ford owner injured when a door hinge assembly, manufactured by Atwood and installed on the car, failed. The complaint alleged that Atwood knew the hinges would be used in Ford automobiles, some of which would be shipped to and sold in Florida. The court, in a 4-3 decision, found these facts sufficient to support the exercise of personal jurisdiction over Atwood.

Two more recent decisions have not found the requisite contacts to support jurisdiction. In Phoenix Trimming, Inc. v. Mowday, 431 So. 2d 198 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), pet. den. 440 So. 2d 352 (Fla.1983), Phoenix, an Illinois corporation, manufactured a synthetic fabric in North Carolina, which it sold to a South Dakota balloon manufacturer. Phoenix did no advertising in Florida nor did it have officers, agents, etc. in the state. A balloon manufactured in South Dakota struck a power line in Florida, causing injury. The Phoenix court acknowledged Atwood but found that because the facts demonstrated a single injury by one product in the state, there were insufficient contacts with Florida to warrant personal jurisdiction.

In Maschinenfabrik Seydelmann v. Altman, 468 So. 2d 286 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), Seydelmann manufactured meat grinders in Germany and sold them to Reiser, a Massachusetts distributor. Reiser sold numerous grinders to Winn-Dixie stores in Florida, one of which injured a Winn-Dixie employee. The court found no activities by Seydelmann upon which to base personal jurisdiction; Atwood was not discussed.

We find that Atwood controls under the facts of this case. SGA, like Atwood, had no part in the sale, distribution or marketing in Florida of the vehicle incorporating its product, but this was not held sufficient to bar a finding of the requisite minimum contacts. Rather, the Atwood court was persuaded to find jurisdiction by the “systematic and continuous presence” of Atwood hinges in Florida. In this case, it was unrefuted that hundreds of SGA sight glasses have and do arrive in Florida and that several similar failures of SGA’s products have occurred in the state. We find that these facts support the allegations in the complaint that SGA knew the sight glasses would be disseminated in Florida and that the trial court was correct in finding the exercise of personal jurisdiction appropriate in this case.

We affirm.

BOOTH, C.J., and JOANOS, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • …se of the valve manufacturer’s product in Illinois constituted an isolated instance. Two district court decisions have since applied Atwood in upholding jurisdiction over out-of-state component parts suppliers. In S.G.A. Scientific, Inc. v. Rhodes, 474 So. 2d 425 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985), long-arm jurisdiction was obtained over a New Jersey corporation which had cut glass for another New Jersey corporation to be used in a sight glass on a fuel tanker. The glass was then sold to a tanker manufacturer, and the glas…
  • …s engaged in continuous, systematic activity to serve this state’s market. See Ford Motor Co. v. Atwood Vacuum Machine Co., 392 So. 2d 1305 (Fla.), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 901, 101 S.Ct. 3024, 69 L.Ed.2d 401 (1981); S.G.A. Scientific, Inc. v. Rhodes, 474 So. 2d 425 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985); see also Jacobson Mfg. Co. v. Cross Mfg. Co., 396 So. 2d 825 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981). Cf. Phoenix Trimming, Inc. v. Mowday, 431 So. 2d 198 (Fla. 4th DCA), rev. denied, 440 So. 2d 352 (Fla.1983); Aero Mechanical Electronic Craftsman…
  • Zodiac Enters., Ltd. v. Darcey Jones, 707 So. 2d 890 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998)
    …Fla. 5th DCA 1996).1 REVERSED. THOMPSON and ANTOON, JJ., concur. . We find Ford Motor Co. v. Atwood Vacuum Machine Co., 392 So. 2d 1305(Fla), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 901, 101 S.Ct. 3024, 69 L.Ed.2d 401 (1981) and S.G.A. Scientific, Inc. v. Rhodes, 474 So. 2d 425 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985) inapplicable. The defendants contesting personal jurisdiction in those cases clearly processed, serviced or manufactured the alleged defective products for consumption within Florida in the ordinary course of commerce, trade or u…

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