SCOTUS Grants Cert in Another Personal Jurisdiction Case: DaimlerChrysler v. Bauman

Today the Supreme Court granted certiorari in DaimlerChrysler AG v. Bauman (No. 11-965). Here is the question presented (from the defendant’s cert petition):

Daimler AG is a German public stock company that does not manufacture or sell products, own property, or employ workers in the United States. The Ninth Circuit nevertheless held that Daimler AG is subject to general personal jurisdiction in California—and can therefore be sued in the State for alleged human-rights violations committed in Argentina by an Argentine subsidiary against Argentine residents—because it has a different, indirect subsidiary that distributes Daimler AG-manufactured vehicles in California. It is undisputed that Daimler AG and its U.S. subsidiary adhere to all the legal requirements necessary to maintain their separate corporate identities.

The question presented is whether it violates due process for a court to exercise general personal jurisdiction over a foreign corporation based solely on the fact that an indirect corporate subsidiary performs services on behalf of the defendant in the forum State.

You can find a link to the Ninth Circuit’s decision below and other information about the case at SCOTUSblog’s casefile.

--A