The plaintiff (Southern Prestige Industries, Inc.) initiated an action against the defendant (Independence Plating Corp.) in a North Carolina state court for a breach of contract. The plaintiff alleged that defects in the defendant’s anodizing process caused the plaintiff’s machine parts to be rejected by Kidde Aerospace. The defendant being a New Jersey corporation and having its only office and all of its personnel situated in the state filed a motion to dismiss citing lack of personal jurisdiction. The trial court denied the motion and the defendant appealed arguing that there were insufficient contacts to satisfy the due process of law requirements necessary to subject the defendant to the personal jurisdiction of North Carolina’s courts. The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s decision stating that due to the nature of the ongoing relationship between the parties the defendant had sufficient minimum contacts within North Carolina to justify the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the defendant without violating due process.
Extended Case 2.2: The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) (the defendant) was established by the federal government in order to provide federal funds to local legal assistance programs for individuals who cannot afford to pay for legal services, with the stipulation that recipients must maintain legal, physical and financial separation from organizations that engage in class-action lawsuits and other restricted purposes. In an attempt to cut costs the state of Oregon (the plaintiff) decided to consolidate legal assistance programs in the state that provided services in the same geographic area. The LSC did not agree with the integration of LSC funded organizations with any programs that engaged in restricted activities.
The state of Oregon filed suit against LSC in a federal district court on the grounds that the state’s ability to provide