Pete Harding Brown and Mott's Inc. of Mississippi v. Flowers Industries, Inc., Jerry Kralis, and Kralis Brothers Foods, Inc.

Summary

The Fifth Circuit held that Mississippi could exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant based on a single allegedly defamatory telephone call made from Indiana to Mississippi. The court concluded that the alleged intentional tort caused foreseeable injury in Mississippi and satisfied both the Mississippi long-arm statute and federal due process requirements. The dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction was reversed and the case was remanded.

Holdings

1. Mississippi's long-arm statute encompasses a nonresident who commits a single tort in whole or in part in Mississippi, even if the alleged tortfeasor was not physically present in the state, when the defendant causes injury there.
2. Due process permits Mississippi to exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident who allegedly commits, in whole or in part, a single intentional tort in Mississippi through an interstate telephone call, where the defendant initiated the call, the injury in Mississippi was foreseeable, and the plaintiff and material witnesses were located in Mississippi.
3. Plaintiffs established a prima facie case of personal jurisdiction by alleging in the complaint and affidavits facts supporting their claim that Kralis defamed them and caused injury in Mississippi.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Mississippi's long-arm statute authorizes service on a nonresident defendant who allegedly commits a tort in whole or in part in Mississippi through a single interstate telephone call.
2. Whether exercising personal jurisdiction over nonresident defendants based on a single allegedly defamatory telephone call comports with the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
3. Whether plaintiffs established a prima facie case of personal jurisdiction when the jurisdictional motion was decided solely on affidavits.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded