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ARTICLE · 03 FEBRUARY 2021

Reinforcing Purposeful Availment

Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
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Can a state court assert personal jurisdiction over a foreign component part manufacturer if the part was manufactured and sold overseas,...

United StatesConsumer Protection
John R. Danos
John R. Danos
E. Paul Dougherty Jr.
E. Paul Dougherty Jr.
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Can a state court assert personal jurisdiction over a foreign component part manufacturer if the part was manufactured and sold overseas, but the manufacturer knew it was intended for use in a consumer product sold in the United States? This was the issue we faced while representing a Japanese manufacturer, whose battery cells were incorporated into smart phones sold throughout the United States.

Our client manufactured and sold the battery cells to another Japanese company, which then exported the cells to Korea to be incorporated into battery packs for smart phones with worldwide distribution. In a personal injury action in California alleging harm from an exploding smart phone, the company that made the battery packs attempted to bring our client, the Japanese battery cell manufacturer, into the litigation, alleging that the California state court should exercise jurisdiction over our client because it knew its battery cells were going to be used in smart phones

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