Test For Proper Venue for Corporate Defendants Addressed by Court

In the case of Dibble v. Page Transp. Inc., Sept. Term 2020, No. 060 (C.P. Phila. Co. May 19, 2021 New, J.), the court issued a Rule 1925 Opinion recommending that the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed its Order sustaining Preliminary Objections to venue in a motor vehicle accident case.

According to the Opinion, the Plaintiffs were involved in a motor vehicle accident in New York. The Defendant driver, was a resident of Pennsylvania.  The tractor trailer company Defendants were from New York, one of which had registered business offices in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia County.

The court noted that, under the test set forth in the case of Purcell v. Bryn Mawr Hospital, 579 A.2d 1282 (Pa. 1990), the Plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that any of the Defendants named in this lawsuit had either the requisite quantity or quality of business contacts in Philadelphia County to be considered to have had “regular” contacts with that jurisdiction.

The court noted that the record confirmed that none of the Defendants had any contacts in Philadelphia County and that the drivers of the company never traveled through Philadelphia rarely carried loads through Pennsylvania.

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


Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions.” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Oct. 5, 2021).