RUSH ET AL. v. SAVCHUK
No. 78-952
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 3, 1979—Decided January 21, 1980
444 U.S. 320
O. C. Adamson II argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs was James F. Roegge.
MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.
This appeal presents the question whether a State may constitutionally exercise quasi in rem jurisdiction over a defendant who has no forum contacts by attaching the contractual obligation of an insurer licensed to do business in the State to defend and indemnify him in connection with the suit.
I
On January 13, 1972, two Indiana residents were involved in a single-car accident in Elkhart, Ind. Appellee Savchuk, who was a passenger in the car driven by appellant Rush, was injured. The car, owned by Rush‘s father, was insured by appellant State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (State Farm) under a liability insurance policy issued in Indiana. Indiana‘s guest statute would have barred a claim by Savchuk.
Savchuk moved with his parents to Minnesota in June 1973.1 On May 28, 1974, he commenced an action against Rush in the Minnesota state courts.2 As Rush had no contacts with Minnesota that would support in personam jurisdiction, Savchuk attempted to obtain quasi in rem jurisdiction by garnishing State Farm‘s obligation under the insurance policy to defend and indemnify Rush in connection with such a suit.3 State Farm does business in Minnesota.4 Rush was
As provided by the state garnishment statute, Savchuk moved the trial court for permission to file a supplemental complaint making the garnishee, State Farm, a party to the action after State Farm‘s response to the garnishment summons asserted that it owed the defendant nothing.6 Rush and State
On appeal, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the trial court‘s decision. 311 Minn. 480, 245 N. W. 2d 624 (1976) (Savchuk I). It held, first, that the obligation of an insurance company to defend and indemnify a nonresident insured under an automobile liability insurance policy is a garnishable res in Minnesota for the purpose of obtaining quasi in rem jurisdiction when the incident giving rise to the action occurs outside Minnesota but the plaintiff is a Minnesota resident when the suit is filed. Second, the court held that the assertion of jurisdiction over Rush was constitutional because he had notice of the suit and an opportunity to defend, his liability was limited to the amount of the policy, and the garnishment procedure may be used only by Minnesota residents. The court expressly recognized that Rush had engaged in no voluntary activity that would justify the exercise of in personam jurisdiction. The court found, however, that considerations of fairness supported the exercise of quasi in rem jurisdiction because in accident litigation the insurer controls the defense of the case, State Farm does business in and is regulated by the State, and the State has an interest in protecting its residents and providing them with a forum in which to litigate their claims.
Rush appealed to this Court. We vacated the judgment and remanded the cause for further consideration in light of Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U. S. 186 (1977). 433 U. S. 902 (1977).
II
The Minnesota Supreme Court held that the Minnesota garnishment statute embodies the rule stated in Seider v. Roth, 17 N. Y. 2d 111, 216 N. E. 2d 312 (1966), that the contractual obligation of an insurance company to its insured under a liability insurance policy is a debt subject to attachment under state law if the insurer does business in the State.8 Seider jurisdiction was upheld against a due process challenge in Simpson v. Loehmann, 21 N. Y. 2d 305, 234 N. E. 2d 669 (1967), reargument denied, 21 N. Y. 2d 990, 238 N. E. 2d 319 (1968). The New York court relied on Harris v. Balk, 198 U. S. 215 (1905), in holding that the presence of the debt
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit gave its approval to Seider in Minichiello v. Rosenberg, 410 F. 2d 106, adhered to en banc, 410 F. 2d 117 (1968), cert. denied, 396 U. S. 844 (1969), although on a slightly different rationale. Judge Friendly construed Seider as “in effect a judicially created direct action statute. The insurer doing business in New York is considered the real party in interest and the nonresident insured is viewed simply as a conduit, who has to be named as a defendant in order to provide a conceptual basis for getting at the insurer.” 410 F. 2d, at 109; see Donawitz v. Danek, 42 N. Y. 2d 138, 142, 366 N. E. 2d 253, 255 (1977). The court held that New York could constitutionally enact a direct action statute, and that the restriction of liability to the amount of the policy coverage made the policyholder‘s personal stake in the litigation so slight that the exercise of jurisdiction did not offend due process.
New York has continued to adhere to Seider.10 New Hampshire has followed Seider if the defendant resides in a Seider jurisdiction,11 but not in other cases.12 Minnesota is the only
III
In Shaffer v. Heitner we held that “all assertions of state-court jurisdiction must be evaluated according to the standards set forth in International Shoe and its progeny.” 433 U. S., at 212. That is, a State may exercise jurisdiction over an absent defendant only if the defendant has “certain minimum contacts with [the forum] such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend ‘traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.‘” International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310, 316 (1945). In determining whether a particular exercise of state-court jurisdiction is consistent with due process, the inquiry must focus on “the relationship among the defendant, the forum, and the litigation.” Shaffer v. Heitner, supra, at 204.
It is conceded that Rush has never had any contacts with Minnesota, and that the auto accident that is the subject of
We held in Shaffer that the mere presence of property in a State does not establish a sufficient relationship between the owner of the property and the State to support the exercise of jurisdiction over an unrelated cause of action. The ownership of property in the State is a contact between the defendant and the forum, and it may suggest the presence of other ties. 433 U. S., at 209. Jurisdiction is lacking, however, unless there are sufficient contacts to satisfy the fairness standard of International Shoe.
Here, the fact that the defendant‘s insurer does business in the forum State suggests no further contacts between the defendant and the forum, and the record supplies no evidence of any. State Farm‘s decision to do business in Minnesota
Nor are there significant contacts between the litigation and the forum. The Minnesota Supreme Court was of the view that the insurance policy was so important to the litigation that it provided contacts sufficient to satisfy due process.15 The insurance policy is not the subject matter of the case, however, nor is it related to the operative facts of the negligence action. The contractual arrangements between the defendant and the insurer pertain only to the conduct, not the substance, of the litigation, and accordingly do not affect the court‘s jurisdiction unless they demonstrate ties between the defendant and the forum.
In fact, the fictitious presence of the insurer‘s obligation in Minnesota does not, without more, provide a basis for concluding that there is any contact in the International Shoe sense
An alternative approach for finding minimum contacts in Seider-type cases, referred to with approval by the Minnesota Supreme Court,16 is to attribute the insurer‘s forum contacts to the defendant by treating the attachment procedure as the functional equivalent of a direct action against the insurer. This approach views Seider jurisdiction as fair both to the insurer, whose forum contacts would support in personam jurisdiction even for an unrelated cause of action, and to the “nominal defendant.” Because liability is limited to the policy amount, the defendant incurs no personal liability,17 and the judgment is satisfied from the policy proceeds which are not available to the insured for any purpose other than paying accident claims, the insured is said to have such a slight stake in the litigation as a practical matter that it is not unfair to make him a “nominal defendant” in order to obtain jurisdiction over the insurance company.
Seider actions are not equivalent to direct actions, however.18 The State‘s ability to exert its power over the “nomi-
The Minnesota court also attempted to attribute State Farm‘s contacts to Rush by considering the “defending parties” together and aggregating their forum contacts in determining whether it had jurisdiction.21 The result was the
The justifications offered in support of Seider jurisdiction share a common characteristic: they shift the focus of the inquiry from the relationship among the defendant, the forum, and the litigation to that among the plaintiff, the forum, the insurer, and the litigation. The insurer‘s contacts with the forum are attributed to the defendant because the policy was taken out in anticipation of such litigation. The State‘s interests in providing a forum for its residents and in regulating the activities of insurance companies are substituted for its contacts with the defendant and the cause of action. This subtle shift in focus from the defendant to the plaintiff is most evident in the decisions limiting Seider jurisdiction to actions by forum residents on the ground that permitting nonresidents to avail themselves of the procedure would be unconstitutional.22 In other words, the plaintiff‘s contacts with the forum are decisive in determining whether the defendant‘s due process rights are violated.
Such an approach is forbidden by International Shoe and its progeny. If a defendant has certain judicially cognizable ties with a State, a variety of factors relating to the particular cause of action may be relevant to the determination whether the exercise of jurisdiction would comport with “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” See McGee v. International Life Ins. Co., 355 U. S. 220 (1957); cf. Kulko v. California Superior Court, 436 U. S., at 98-101. Here, however, the defendant has no contacts with the forum, and the
Reversed.
[For dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, see ante, p. 299.]
MR. JUSTICE STEVENS, dissenting.
As the Court notes, appellant Rush had no contact with Minnesota that would support personal jurisdiction over him in that State. Ante, at 322. Moreover, Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U. S. 186, precludes the assertion of quasi in rem jurisdiction over his property in that forum if the intangible property attached is unrelated to the action. It does not follow, however, that the plaintiff may not obtain quasi in rem jurisdiction over appellant‘s insurance policy, since his carrier does business in Minnesota and since it has also specifically contracted in the policy attached to defend the very litigation that plaintiff has instituted in Minnesota.
In this kind of case, the Minnesota statute authorizing jurisdiction is correctly characterized as the “functional equivalent” of a so-called direct-action statute. The impact of the judgment is against the insurer.* I believe such a direct-action statute is valid as applied to a suit brought by a forum resident, see Watson v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp., 348 U. S. 66, 72, even if the accident giving rise to the action did not occur in the forum State, see Minichiello v. Rosenberg,
*It seems to me that the possible impact of a default judgment on the reputation of an individual, see ante, at 331, n. 20, who has no contacts whatever with the forum State is far too remote to affect the analysis of the constitutional issue in this case.
In this case, although appellant Rush may have a contractual obligation to his insurer to appear in court to testify and generally to cooperate in the defense of the lawsuit, it is my understanding that Minnesota law does not compel him to do so through the contempt power or otherwise. Moreover, any judgment formally entered against the individual defendant may only be executed against the proceeds of his insurance policy. In my opinion, it would violate the Due Process Clause to make any use of such a judgment against that individual—for example, by giving the judgment collateral-estoppel effect in a later action against him arising from the same accident. Accord, Minichiello v. Rosenberg, supra, at 112; Note, The Constitutionality of Seider v. Roth after Shaffer v. Heitner, 78 Colum. L. Rev. 409, 418-419 (1978). But we are not now faced with any problem concerning use of a quasi in rem judgment against an individual defendant personally. I am therefore led to the conclusion that the Federal Constitution does not require the Minnesota courts to dismiss this action.