Important Issue of Jurisdiction Found To Have Been Waived

In the case of Murray v. American LaFrance, 2020 Pa. Super. 149 (Pa. Super. June 25, 2020) (en banc) (Op. by Bowes, J.), the en banc Pennsylvania Superior Court addressed whether Pennsylvania has general personal jurisdiction over a Delaware company with its principal place of business in Illinois exclusively due to the Defendant’s 1969 registration with the Pennsylvania Department of State as a foreign corporation pursuant to 15 Pa. C.S.A. §411(a). 

The en banc panel ruled that the Plaintiff failed to properly preserve this issue of jurisdiction before the trial court and, as such, the en banc panel found that the issue was not preserved. 

This was a case that many were watching to determine the validity of the argument that the Pennsylvania’s business registration law was, in and of itself, sufficient to establish jurisdiction over an out-of-state company where that company has registered with the state to do business in Pennsylvania. Based on this decision, litigants will have to await another day for the issues to be decided.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.

Source: “Waiver Issue Sinks Dispute Over Whether Pa.’s Registration Law Establishes Jurisdiction” by Max Mitchell, Pennsylvania Law Weekly (June 25, 2020).