JOSHUA RIZACK, AS PLAN ADMINISTRATOR OF THE POST, ETC.
v.
SIGNATURE BANK, N.A.
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Florida investors appealed the trial court's dismissal of their complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. The appellate court agreed with appellants that jurisdictional discovery should have been permitted before dismissal, reversing the dismissal and remanding for further proceedings.
The court reversed the dismissal and remanded the case, holding that when affidavits cannot be sufficiently harmonized to allow the trial court to make a jurisdictional determination, the court must allow the parties to conduct limited jurisdictional discovery before ruling on the personal jurisdiction issue.
[1] When conflicting affidavits on a personal jurisdiction issue cannot be reconciled to allow a decision on affidavits alone, a trial court must permit limited jurisdictiona…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Taking the contents of the affidavits as true, we find that they could not be sufficiently harmonized to provide the trial court with the ability to make its decision based solely upon the affidavits.”
Court's reasoning for requiring jurisdictional discovery
Appellants, Florida investors, filed a complaint against Appellees asserting long-arm jurisdiction under Florida Statute section 48.193. Both parties …
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PER CURIAM.
Appellants, including several Florida investors, appeal the trial court’s dismissal of their complaint against Appellees with prejudice due to a lack of personal jurisdiction. They assert that the trial court should have permitted jurisdictional discovery. We agree.
There is no dispute that Appellants carried their initial burden by pleading long-arm jurisdiction pursuant to section 48.193, Florida Statutes (2018). See Becker v. Hooshmand, 841 So. 2d 561, 562 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). Thereafter, both parties submitted several affidavits either in support of or in opposition to the assertion that the lower court possessed personal jurisdiction over Appellees. See id.; accord Venetian Salami Co. v. Parthenais, 554 So. 2d 499, 502 (Fla. 1989); McMillan v. Troutman, 740 So. 2d 1227, 1228 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999).
“We review a court’s order denying a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction de novo.” Rolls-Royce, PLC v. Spirit Airlines, Inc., 239 So. 3d 709, 712 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018).
Taking the contents of the affidavits as true, we find that they could not be sufficiently harmonized to provide the trial court with the ability to make its decision based solely upon the affidavits. See McMillan, 740 So. 2d at 1228; accord Venetian Salami, 554 So. 2d at 502–03. Thus, we reverse and remand for the trial court to allow the parties to conduct limited jurisdictional discovery to be presented via affidavit or at an evidentiary hearing. See Gleneagle Ship Mgmt. Co. v. Leondakos, 602 So. 2d 1282, 1284 (Fla. 1992); accord Rolls-Royce, 239 So. 3d at 714; Packaging & Distrib. Res., LLC v. Duke Realty Ltd., 194 So. 3d 509, 510 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016). “Once discovery on the jurisdictional issue is concluded, the procedure outlined in Venetian Salami should be followed by the trial court.” Gleneagle, 602 So. 2d at 1284.
Reversed and remanded. MAY, CIKLIN and KLINGENSMITH, JJ., concur. * * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Venetian Salami Co. v. J.S. Parthenais, 554 So. 2d 499 (Fla. 1989)
- Gleneagle Ship Mgmt. Co. v. Leondakos, 602 So. 2d 1282 (Fla. 1992)
- Becker v. Hooshang Hooshmand, M.D., 841 So. 2d 561 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)
- Packaging & Distrib. Res., LLC. v. Duke Realty Ltd., 194 So. 3d 509 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016)
- Rolls-Royce, PLC v. Spirit Airlines, Inc., 239 So. 3d 709 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)
- McMILLAN v. Troutman, 740 So. 2d 1227 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)