Important Recent Decision Regarding Personal Jurisdiction Over Foreign Corporations

• Published date: 25 January 2022
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Corporate and Company Law, Trials & Appeals & Compensation, Personal Injury
• Law Firm: Freeman Mathis & Gary
• Author: Mr Sean Phelan

In the recent Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas matter, Knox v. Seven Seas Cruises, No. 525, August Term 2020 (C.P. Phila. Co. Aug. 21, 2021 New, J.), the trial court issued a Rule 1925 Opinion requesting the Superior Court to affirm the trial court's decision to dismiss the case for lack of personal jurisdiction. The case involved a claim for monetary damages against an international cruise line regarding a cruise which was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. The cruise in question had been scheduled to embark in San Diego and to disembark in Miami.

The Plaintiffs filed suit in Philadelphia County, claiming the Pennsylvania trial court had specific jurisdiction because the financial harms which the Plaintiffs allegedly sustained were related to the Panamanian cruise line's contacts in Pennsylvania, specifically, the cruise line's solicitation of the Plaintiffs' business and that of other Pennsylvania residents. After the filing of timely Preliminary Objections asserting the issue of personal jurisdiction, the court held that, even though the Defendant cruise line admittedly and directly solicited business from Pennsylvania residents, including the Plaintiffs' themselves, the court lacked specific personal jurisdiction over this foreign corporation because the alleged injury-causing incident involving the...