Associated Transport Line, Inc. v. Productos Fitosanitarios Proficol el Carmen, S.A.

No. 98-3765 (197 F.3d 1070) (11th Cir. December 8, 1999)

ELR Digest

The court holds that it lacks personal jurisdiction over a foreign pesticide manufacturer to review a shipping company's claim that the manufacturer's misidentification of a pesticide's harmful nature caused the company to incur excess costs in responding to a spill of that pesticide in Florida waters. The court first holds that it does not have jurisdiction over the manufacturer under the state long-arm statute despite the company's claim that the manufacturer committed a tort in the state by violating the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and federal admiralty law. A tort based on a CERCLA violation is located where theenvironmental hazard occurs, and, here, the CERCLA violation was the pesticide release. However, the wrong that the company alleges that the manufacturer committed was not the pesticide spill, but rather the communication of misinformation that caused the company to pay more for the cleanup than necessary. This additional money spent to clean up the spill was not proximately caused by the spill itself. The excess money was spent due to the manufacturer's breach of its duty to accurately identify the pesticide, but the breach of this duty was not committed in the United States but in the manufacturer's country.

The court next holds that the manufacturer lacks sufficient contacts with the United States to grant the court jurisdiction under Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(2). The contact giving rise to the company's claim—the manufacturer's alleged single misidentification of the chemical as it passed through Florida waters—is insufficient. Likewise, the manufacturer's contacts with the forum that are unrelated to the litigation consist of nine sales over four years and are insufficient to justify the exercise of personal jurisdiction.

The full text of this decision is available from ELR (5 pp., ELR Order No. L-134).

Counsel for Plaintiffs
Michael B. Piper
Piper, Esteva, Green, Karvonen & Lewis
3637 N. 4th St., Ste. 410, St. Petersburg FL 33204
(727) 821-6550

Counsel for Defendant
Daniel S. Pearson
Holland & Knight
701 Brickell Ave., Ste. 3000, Miami FL 33131
(305) 374-8500

[30 ELR 20217]

[OPINION OMITTED BY PUBLISHER IN ORIGINAL SOURCE]