Legal Niches

In Jensen v. Modern Aero, Inc., 2010 WL 88229 (Minn. App. Jan. 12, 2010), the Court of Appeals of Minnesota held that a defendant's website, which lauded defendant's "worldwide" expertise," listed a toll-free telephone number for defendant, and provided an electronic form for customers to contact the defendant, was insufficient to confer general personal jurisdiction over the defendant.  Accordingly, the Court affirmed the dismissal of negligence claims brought by the estate of a pilot who died in the crash of his small private airplane.

In rejecting Jensen's argument in favor of general jursidiction, the Court applied the reasoning articulated in Lakin v. Prudential Sec., Inc., 348 F.3d 704, 709 (8th Cir. 2003) in which the "critical question" is whether "a defendant's activity in the forum state is continuous and systematic."  "In Lakin, however, the Eighth Circuit observed that, in most cases the question of whether a website can create personal jurisdiction is pertinent to the issue of specific personal jurisdiction.  In determining wether a defendant's website satisfies the requirements of general personal jurisdiction, the Eighth Circuit first applied the test articulated in Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc., 952 F.Supp. 1119, 1124 (W.D. Pa. 1997), but also required contacts with the forum state through the website to be of a substantial quantity."  Jensen, 2010 WL 88229, at *2.

Noting that a passive website - one that "does little more than make information available to those who are interested in it" - cannot confer personal jursidiction, the Court found that the district court properly concluded that Modern Aero's website was "passive" and "at best . . . a worldwide website which allows customers to contact [Modern Aero's] sole facility in Colorado."  Accordingly, the Court agreed that Modern Aero's website was not sufficiently interactive to confer personal jurisdiction over Modern Aero under the Zippo test, as adopted in Lakin.

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