Personal Jurisdiction Over Retailers and Regional Distributors in Products Liability Litigation: Sufficiency of a Single Contact

The fault basis for recovery has largely been replaced by strict liability in awarding compensation to tort victims. However, there are still procedural barriers that must be overcome. The most pressing of these is securing personal jurisdiction over potential defendants. Personal jurisdiction problems pertaining to national manufacturers have long since been resolved, but complex issues still exist as to liability of retailers and regional distributors. The Supreme Court recently attempted to settle the conflicting authority in World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. versus Woodson. The critical factor in the decision was the issue of foreseeability, i.e., when it is foreseeable that a defendant's product will be used in the forum state, it is not unreasonable to allow that state to assert jurisdiction. The Court modified that theory from requiring a likelihood that the product would find its way into the forum state, to a requirement that the defendant's conduct and connection with the forum state are such that he can reasonably anticipate being summoned to court there.