Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:03 PM 3/4/02 -0500, Austin Franklin wrote: >> But your basic statement is a gross over-characterization of the current >> state of the law. > >Well, Marc, please explain why YOU BELIEVE it is a GROSS >over-characterization? I have done this very thing a few times and have >won, and had no problem collecting, or enforcing collection. Austin You earlier stated: "Well, I know I CAN win. In MA, I can sue any company in the US here locally. No, I do NOT have to go to that state to sue them. We have a long arm statute that is invoked via what is called a "93A" demand letter." You made a flat statement that the Massachussetts long-arm statute allowed ANY corporation to be hauled into a Massachussetts state court upon complying with the requirements of that act. The US Supreme Court over the past thirty years has severely limited this, however, and requires that a corporation have a 'minimum sufficient contact' with the forum state before long-arm jurisdiction can be exercized. In other words, the first thresh-hold to get over is that you have to show that the company you are suing has these "sufficient minimum contacts". To establish this, you normally would have to show that the company did something within Massachussetts -- caused an accident or the like. Conducting business gets you over the thresh-hold so, as I earlier stated, you should have no problem with hauling Leica into a Massachussetts court. Your statement would have been fine if qualified a bit -- something along the lines of, "In Massachussetts, I can sue any US company REGULARLY CONDUCTING BUSINESS HERE and can do so in a Massachussetts court." I should warn you: many states allow an award of sanctions if you try to haul a foreign corporation into their courts improperly. Such sanctions would normally consist of attorney's fees -- and, at $200 an hour, it doesn't take many hours to make this a REAL kick in the can, the sort of thing which would ruin even the sunniest of Fridays. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +276/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html