California Court of Appeal

In plaintiff's suit against his former employer and defendant-parent corporation for wrongful termination, defendant's petition for writ of mandate directing the trial court to vacate its order denying defendant's motion to quash service of a summons and complaint for lack of jurisdiction and ineffective service of process is issued where: 1) the representatives services doctrine does not support general jurisdiction over defendant because, while the representative services doctrine is applied separately from general jurisdiction based on agency, the doctrine still requires a showing of a high level of control such that the subsidiary is just an instrumentality of the parent's own business; 2) plaintiff has offered no support for the assertion that dual employment benefit plans constitute a level of control exceeding a normal parent-subsidiary relationship; 3) plaintiff offers no support that defendant's action constitute substantial, continuous and systematic contacts; and 4) there is insufficient basis to impose specific jurisdiction over defendant.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/23/2010
• Published 11/23/2010

Judges

• EPSTEIN

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Allen L. Michel