In last month’s column, which appeared on page 3 of the June 18 edition of the Law Journal, we discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Daimler AG v. Bauman, 134 S. Ct. 746 (2014). The opinion is a game changer, and significantly narrowed the scope of previously understood notions of general jurisdiction.
The doctrine of general jurisdiction, also known as all-purpose jurisdiction, permits a court to exercise personal jurisdiction over a defendant in its “home” forum, even if the claim has no connection with it, based on the defendant’s overall contacts with that forum. The Supreme Court essentially declared that New York’s “doing business test,” employed by our courts for decades to measure whether a corporate defendant is subject to general jurisdiction in New York, does not comport with the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
