STANLEY HOROWITZ, APPELLANT,
v.
ROSE PRINTING COMPANY, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1995-12-11
No. 95-1790
ERVIN and LAWRENCE, JJ., concur.
664 So. 2d 325 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1995) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Synopsis

Stanley Horowitz, a Georgia resident, appealed the denial of his motion to dismiss a breach of contract action filed by Rose Printing Company, a Florida corporation. The court reversed, holding that Horowitz's undisputed affidavit denying minimum contacts with Florida defeated the exercise of long-arm jurisdiction where the plaintiff failed to provide counter-affidavits establishing jurisdiction.


Holding

The court reversed the denial of the motion to dismiss, holding that Horowitz's legally sufficient affidavit contesting the jurisdictional allegations placed the burden on the plaintiff to demonstrate by affidavit a basis for jurisdiction, and Rose Printing Company's failure to provide counter-affidavits or sworn proof defeated the exercise of long-arm jurisdiction.


Headnotes

[1] Personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant is established by a two-step inquiry: first, whether the complaint alleges sufficient jurisdictional facts to bring the…

[2] A corporate officer acting solely within the scope of their employment is generally not subject to personal jurisdiction in a forum where their only contacts are those of…

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Key Quotes

“in determining whether long-arm jurisdiction is appropriate in a given case, a complaint must allege sufficient jurisdictional facts to bring the action within the ambit of the applicable long-arm statute and the defendant must have sufficient minimum contacts with the forum state to satisfy due process requirements.”

Establishes the two-part test for long-arm jurisdiction

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Facts & Procedural History

Rose Printing Company, a Florida corporation, sued Horowitz (a Georgia resident and president of ESB Trading Company, a Georgia corporation) for breac…

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Opinion of the Court
MICKLE, Judge.

MICKLE, Judge.

Stanley Horowitz (Horowitz) appeals a non-final order of the trial court denying his motion to dismiss the complaint against him for lack of personal jurisdiction. We reverse.

Rose Printing Company, Inc. (a Florida corporation), filed an action for breach of contract against Horowitz (a Georgia resident) and ESB Trading Company, Inc. (a Georgia corporation)1. As the basis for personal jurisdiction, Rose Printing Company alleged that “the cause of action arose from Defendants operating, conducting, engaging in or carrying on a business or a business venture in this state” and “Defendants breached a contract in this state by failing to perform acts required by the contract to be performed in this state.”

Horowitz (who is president of ESB Trading Company) and ESB Trading Company moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. The motion to dismiss was denied on the grounds that it was improperly filed pro se and that the language of the contract evinced an intent on the part of the parties that Leon County would be the appropriate choice of forum for litigation.

Rose Printing Company then filed an amended complaint, asserting the same grounds for personal jurisdiction. ESB Trading Company and Horowitz, now represented by counsel, moved to dismiss the amended complaint on the basis that they lacked the necessary minimum contacts with Florida for the exercise of personal jurisdiction over them. In support of the motion, Horowitz submitted an affidavit personally attesting that neither he nor ESB Trading Company operates, conducts, engages in or carries on a business or business venture in Florida, that neither he nor ESB Trading Company breached a contract in Florida, and that neither he nor ESB Trading Company was required to perform any acts in Florida pursuant to the terms of the alleged contract. The trial court denied the motion to dismiss, finding its previous ruling on the earlier motion to be the law of the case.

The procedure for resolving questions of personal jurisdiction was set out by the Florida Supreme Court in Venetian Salami Co. v. Parthenais, 554 So. 2d 499 (Fla.1989). Specifically, in determining whether long-arm jurisdiction is appropriate in a given case, a complaint must allege sufficient jurisdictional facts to bring the action within the ambit of the applicable long-arm statute and the defendant must have sufficient minimum contacts with the forum state to satisfy due process requirements. A defendant wishing to contest the allegations of the complaint concerning jurisdiction, or to raise the contention of a lack of minimum contacts, must file a legally sufficient affidavit in support of his position. The burden is then on the plaintiff to show by affidavit the basis upon which jurisdiction may be obtained. Venetian Salami; Tobacco Merchants Ass’n of U.S. v. Broin, 657 So. 2d 939 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995). If no such sworn proof is forthcoming from the plaintiff as to the basis for jurisdiction, the trial court must grant the defendant’s motion to dismiss. Tobacco Merchants.

In the instant case, Horowitz’s undisputed affidavit averring no operation of a business in Florida, no breach of contract in Florida, and no requirement to perform any acts in Florida, was legally sufficient to contest Rose Printing Company’s jurisdictional allegations. Rose Printing Company’s failure to respond with a counter-affidavit or other sworn proof that Horowitz operated or conducted a business in Florida, or that Horowitz breached the contract by failing to perform acts required by the contract to be performed in Florida, served to defeat the exercise of long-arm jurisdiction over Horowitz. See Tobacco Merchants; Williams v. Martin, 595 So. 2d 164 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992); Passy v. Lewis, 553 So. 2d 223 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (even if allegations of complaint could be construed as adequate to invoke long-arm statute, plaintiff nevertheless has burden to prove defendant is subject to jurisdiction where defendant controverted the allegations of the complaint by affidavit).

REVERSED and REMANDED with instructions to grant the motion to dismiss.

ERVIN and LAWRENCE, JJ., concur. . Pursuant to a notice of voluntary dismissal, ESB Trading Company was dismissed as a defendant below and is no longer a party to this appeal.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Gilles Rollet v. Gwenaelle de Bizemont, 159 So. 3d 351 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015)
    …e plaintiff as to the basis for jurisdiction, the trial court must grant the defendant’s motion to dismiss.” Id. (emphasis added). See also Vencap, Inc. v. McDonald Sec. Corp., 827 So. 2d 1061 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002); Horowitz v. Rose Printing Co., Inc., 664 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Williams v. Martin, 595 So. 2d 164 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). It is undisputed that Rollet filed an affidavit contesting the allegations of personal jurisdictional set forth in de Bizemont’s complaint. That affidavit was legally suff…
  • Intego Software, LLC v. Concept Dev., Inc., 198 So. 3d 887 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016)
    …red under Venetian Salami and its progeny published since 1989. “If no such sworn proof is forthcoming from the plaintiff as to the basis for jurisdiction, the trial court must grant the defendant’s motion to dismiss.” Horowitz v. Rose Printing Co., 664 So. 2d 325, 327 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995) citing Tobacco Merchants Ass’n of U.S. v. Broin, 657 So. 2d 939 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995). Had Inte-go filed any proof in a valid affidavit, we might have a more difficult decision as to whether sufficient contacts had occurred to…
  • Kent v. Marmorstein, 120 So. 3d 604 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)
    …boa is instructive because like in the present case, a contract was in issue, but unlike the present case, both parties filed sworn affidavits concerning jurisdiction. The facts of the instant case are also similar to Horowitz v. Rose Printing Co., 664 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). In Horowitz, the plaintiff filed an action for breach of contract against out-of-state defendants. The defendants moved to dismiss based on lack of minimum contacts and filed an affidavit stating that they did not operate a busi…

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