Andrea Irvin appeals the district court’s dismissal of her case for want of personal jurisdiction over Southern Snow Manufacturing, Inc. (“Southern Snow”). We AFFIRM.
Louisiana-based Southern Snow manufactures shaved-ice machines used to create “snowballs.” It sells those machines and the accessories necessary to make snowballs — such as flavored syrup, syrup bottles, bottle nozzles, disposable cups, and plastic spoons — to customers residing in all states in the United States, as well as internationally. Mississippi has, in some years, been the third largest market for Southern Snow products.
Southern Snow sold a snowball machine to a Louisiana resident who bought, paid for, and took possession of the machine in Louisiana. Several years later, the purchaser sold the machine in Louisiana to Irvin and her husband, both Mississippi residents, and the Irvins took it to Mississippi. Irvin later purchased $369.20 worth of snowball accessories directly from Southern Snow. No evidence suggests that these accessories are unique to Southern Snow’s snowball machines.
Irvin subsequently injured her hand while attempting to clean the machine. She sued Southern Snow in Mississippi state court, asserting negligence, defective-design, and failure-to-warn claims. Southern Snow removed and filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing and granted the motion. Irvin timely appealed.
This court reviews de novo as an issue of law whether a district court may properly exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant. Clemens v. McNamee,
“A federal district court sitting in diversity may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant if (1) the long-arm statute of the forum state confers personal jurisdiction over that defendant; and (2) [the] exercise of such jurisdiction by the forum state is consistent with due process under the United States Constitution.”
There are two types of personal jurisdiction: general and specific. See, e.g., Luv N’ Care, Ltd. v. Insta-Mix, Inc.,
The exercise of specific jurisdiction requires establishing three elements. First, the plaintiff must show that the defendant has established minimum contacts with the forum state by purposely directing its activities toward the forum state or purposefully availing itself of the privilege of conducting activities there. See Burger King,
Second, the plaintiffs claims must “re-laten to or ‘arise[] out of [the] defendant’s contacts with the forum.” Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. v. Hall,
Although the particular machine that injured Irvin arrived in Mississippi through the plaintiffs own unilateral acts, Irvin contends that Southern Snow’s business contacts with other Mississippi customers are sufficient to support specific jurisdiction under a “stream-of-commerce” theory, citing Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. v. Avco Corp.,
We need not decide the outer limits of the stream-of-commerce jurisdictional theory here. We assume without deciding that Irvin demonstrated that Southern Snow purposefully availed itself of the privilege of doing business in Mississippi by making a substantial percentage of its overall sales to customers in that state, satisfying the first element of specific jurisdiction. See Choice Healthcare, Inc. v. Kaiser Found. Health Plan of Colo.,
The second element proves more problematic, as Irvin fails to show that her claims “arose out of’ or “relates to” Southern Snow’s Mississippi contacts. As an initial matter, the nexus between those contacts and the machine that injured Irvin is too attenuated to support personal jurisdiction based on an “arose-out-of ’ theory. Southern Snow sold the machine to a Louisiana customer and had no knowledge that, years later, Irvin unilaterally transported it into Mississippi. Moreover, although Irvin suffered injury in Mississippi, that fact alone does not make Southern Snow amenable to suit in Mississippi. See Seiferth,
We also cannot say on this record that Irvin’s claims sufficiently “relate to” Southern Snow’s Mississippi contacts. Although Irvin points to the allegedly large figure of sales by Southern Snow to various Mississippi-based customers, this number includes sales of syrup and other snowball-making accessories — which did not cause Irvin’s injuries — and no evidence in the record allows a comparison of the amount of sales attributable to these types of accessories versus the sales attributable to actual snowball machines. Indeed, on this record, we have no basis to determine how many snowball machines Southern Snow sends outside of Louisiana in general, or to Mississippi in particular. See Bean Dredging,
Counsel for Irvin conceded at oral argument that these absent facts bear heavily on the exercise of personal jurisdiction. Without them, she cannot satisfy her bur
AFFIRMED.
Notes
Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.
. The Mississippi long-arm statute is not coextensive with due process. See ITL Int’l, Inc. v. Constenla, S.A.,
. In any case, the record does not suggest that Southern Snow’s contacts with Mississippi are "so 'continuous and systematic’ as to render [it] essentially at home” and amenable to suit there under a general jurisdiction theory. Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown, - U.S. -,
. The Supreme Court declined to address a similar issue in Helicopteros Nacionales,
. We therefore need not and do not decide whether a claim may “relate to,” but not "arise out of,” a defendant’s forum contacts. Helicopteros Nacionales,
. We therefore have no occasion to consider whether the exercise of personal jurisdiction in Mississippi would comport with traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. See ITL International,
