Plaintiffs Try To Find Loopholes In Landmark Mallory Decision

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (2021) modernized Pennsylvania's personal jurisdiction law when it declared unconstitutional the Commonwealth's statute requiring foreign corporations registering to do business in Pennsylvania to consent to general personal jurisdiction there.* The court held that, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Daimler and Goodyear line of cases, "a foreign corporation's registration to do business in the Commonwealth does not constitute voluntary consent to general [personal] jurisdiction but, rather, compelled submission to general jurisdiction by legislative command."

Plaintiffs' attorneys have long used this statute as a tool to drag defendants into Philadelphia's reputedly plaintiff-friendly trial courts, even for alleged actions having no connection to Pennsylvania. And they will not easily give up that tool. Already plaintiffs are looking for a loophole to keep a pipeline of cases flowing