Ford Motor Company v. Bandemer

Questions presented

SCOTUS records, cert granted 17 Jan 2020

The Due Process Clause permits a state court to exercise specific personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant only when the plaintiff’s claims “arise out of or relate to" the defendant's forum activities. Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 472 (1985) (internal quotation marks omitted). The question presented is: Whether the “arise out of or relate to" requirement is met when none of the defendant's forum contacts caused the plaintiff’s claims, such that the plaintiff’s claims would be the same even if the defendant had no forum contacts.

Opinion summary

Etalia.ai summary of the majority opinion

The case involved a dispute between Ford Motor Company and Bandemer, focusing on the issue of personal jurisdiction. The Supreme Court addressed whether state courts could exercise jurisdiction over Ford in product liability cases when the company's conduct in those states was not directly related to the plaintiffs' claims. Specifically, it examined if selling vehicles and maintaining dealerships within a state sufficed for establishing jurisdiction even if the specific vehicle causing injury was not sold there by Ford itself. The Court ruled that such connections were adequate for asserting specific personal jurisdiction because they created substantial ties with the forum states through business activities like advertising and servicing cars, which contributed to consumer reliance.