On appeal, plaintiff contends California has jurisdiction over defendant because either his conduct comes within the "special regulation" basis for specific jurisdiction, or otherwise justified specific jurisdiction as a continuing course of conduct commencing in California and thereafter directed toward California after defendant left the state. As we agree with the former premise (which plaintiff concedes obviates the latter argument), we shall vacate the order quashing service and remand for consideration of the merits of her petition.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Defendant filed a brief declaration in support of his motion to quash. In opposing the motion, plaintiff relied on the allegations contained in her
In short, defendant asserted that he (then) lived in Georgia and had not had any contacts with California for two years; "[t]here are no alleged activities that took place inside California." Plaintiff had moved from Georgia to California shortly before filing a purported dissolution action and the present action. Defendant was served in Georgia.
In her request for the restraining order, plaintiff sought protection on behalf of herself, her mother (with whom she was now living), and her two dogs (which defendant had also abused). (She asserted there were not any other cases pending between her and defendant.) The most recent incident of abuse was in mid-December 2015, when defendant heard her telling her mother over the phone about his 20-year history of domestic violence against her; he left her
In attachments to her petition, plaintiff also noted another incident earlier in December 2015 that left her with bruised ribs; an incident in November 2015 when he choked her almost into unconsciousness; an incident in October 2015 when he threatened to kill them both; and a history of being "pushed, kicked, punched, strangled, and raped" for the previous 20 years. After she left him, defendant pretended to shoot himself in the mouth with his shotgun during a video message to her on social media in late December 2015.
Although unsupported with any evidence , plaintiff's counsel asserted in her points and authorities in response to defendant's motion to quash service of process for lack of personal jurisdiction that the parties had been life-long residents of California before their 1996 marriage, and continued to reside in California until the move to Georgia at the beginning of 2015; counsel for defendant did not contest these representations. Plaintiff's counsel also attached a printout as a purported example of one day's worth of what counsel termed "systematic" Internet contacts between defendant and plaintiff, which counsel characterized as being "abusive" or "threatening" (although our review of this particular sample would not appear to warrant those labels).
The trial court's minute order states the motion to quash was granted "based on its finding that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over [defendant]." It did not expressly resolve plaintiff's claim of ongoing abuse in California before the Georgia move, or make any express reference to
DISCUSSION
On undisputed facts, the issue of personal jurisdiction is a question of law subject to our de novo review; if there is a conflict in the evidence, we accept express or implicit factual resolutions of the trial court with substantial evidence in support. ( HealthMarkets, Inc. v. Superior Court (2009)
It is the plaintiff's burden to allege the facts in a verified submission on which to premise personal jurisdiction. Upon a sufficient showing, the burden then switches to the defendant to show that the exercise of jurisdiction would nonetheless be unreasonable. ( HealthMarkets , supra , 171 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1167-1168,
The flaw in plaintiff's briefing is presupposing that spousal abuse on defendant's part while the parties were physically present in California before their move to Georgia is properly part of her jurisdictional showing. Defendant denied that this occurred, and the trial court never adverted
As for the Internet communications between the parties, the request for the restraining order contains only plaintiff's description under penalty of perjury regarding the staged video suicide attempt. Indeed, the trial court expressly noted that the request's "allegations of domestic violence and abuse do not include the e-mails. In other words, the e-mails were not [a] precipitating factor in [the] request for [a] domestic violence restraining order." Trial counsel's attachment to the opposition points and authorities of an unverified
As a result, we are left only with acts of spousal abuse physically occurring in Georgia, and the video message (which defendant did not deny) as the basis for personal jurisdiction. We therefore evaluate plaintiff's arguments on this limited factual basis.
The boundary of the jurisdiction of our courts over nonresident defendants is the constitutional right to due process. ( Vons Companies, Inc. v. Seabest Foods, Inc. (1996)
Plaintiff invokes a species of specific jurisdiction in which a defendant acting elsewhere causes effects in California of a nature that are " 'exceptional' " and subject to " 'special regulation' " in this state. ( Quattrone v. Superior Court (1975)
The very existence of the Domestic Violence Protection Act bespeaks California's concern with an exceptional type of conduct that it subjects to special regulation. As in Schlussel v. Schlussel (1983)
The record is devoid of any evidence that the exercise of personal jurisdiction over defendant would be unreasonable. He did not have any apparent difficulty in engaging the services of counsel to appear in opposition to the request for a restraining order ( Hall v. LaRonde (1997)
DISPOSITION
The order quashing service is vacated and the matter remanded to the trial court for further proceedings on the merits of the request for a domestic
We concur:
ROBIE, Acting P. J.
DUARTE, J.
Notes
Defendant, who now lists an address in South Carolina, is not represented on appeal and has not filed a respondent's brief. We do not treat his failure to do so as a default or an admission that the trial court erred (In re Marriage of Riddle (2005)
Simply describing the attachment as "true and correct" in the course of the opposition points and authorities is manifestly inadequate. Although trial counsel made an offer of proof at the hearing, this was limited to evidence regarding whether defendant had established a domicile in Georgia that superseded his California domicile, and did not involve the nature of the other Internet communications.
We have allowed a number of amici curiae to file a collective brief in support of plaintiff. Their brief suffers the same shortcomings with respect to the factual premises of its arguments, and otherwise does not persuade us to reach beyond the issues as plaintiff has framed them. (City of Brentwood v. Campbell (2015)