Business Law 11th Edition by Kenneth Clarkson,Roger LeRoy Miller,Gaylord Jentz,Frank Cross

تمرين 12

Mastondrea v. Occidental Hotels Management S.A.
Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, 2007. 391 N.J.Super. 261, 918 A.2d 27.
lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/search.shtml a
• Background and Facts Libgo Travel, Inc., in Ramsey, New Jersey, with Allegro Resorts Management Corporation (ARMC), a marketing agency in Miami, Florida, placed an ad in the Newark Star Ledger, a newspaper in Newark, New Jersey, to tout vacation packages for accommodations at the Royal Hideaway Playacar, an all-inclusive resort hotel in Quintana Roo, Mexico. ARMC is part of Occidental Hotels Management, B.V., a Netherlands corporation that owns the hotel with Occidental Hoteles Management S.A., a Spanish company. In response to the ad, Amanda Mastondrea, a New Jersey resident, bought one of the packages through Liberty Travel, a chain of travel agencies in the eastern United States that Libgo owns and operates. On June 16, 2003, at the resort, Mastondrea slipped and fell on a wet staircase, breaking her ankle. She filed a suit in a New Jersey state court against the hotel, its owners, and others, alleging negligence. The defendants asked the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that it did not have personal jurisdiction over them. The court ruled in part that it had jurisdiction over the hotel. The hotel appealed this ruling to a state intermediate appellate court.
a. In the "SEARCH THE N.J. COURTS DECISIONS" section, type "Mastondrea" in the box, and click on "Search!" In the result, click on the case name to access the opinion. Rutgers University Law School in Camden, New Jersey, maintains this Web site.
PAYNE, J.A.D. [Judge, Appellate Division]
It is unquestionably true that the Hotel has no direct presence in New Jersey.* * * [T]he Hotel's operations are located in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The Hotel is not registered, licensed or otherwise authorized to do business in New Jersey. It has no registered agent in this state for service of process, and it pays no state taxes. The Hotel maintains no business address here, it has never owned property or maintained any bank accounts in this state, and it has no employees in New Jersey.
However, * * * "Tour Operator Agreements" between the Hotel and Libgo * * * provide that the Hotel will allot a specific number of rooms at its resort to Libgo at agreed-upon rates. Libgo, as "tour operator," is then authorized by the Hotel to book those rooms on behalf of Libgo's customers. Pursuant to the contract, Libgo is required to provide the Hotel with weekly sales reports listing the number of rooms booked by Libgo and the rates at which those rooms were booked. It must also confirm all reservations in a writing sent to the Hotel.
Courts have generally sustained the exercise of personal jurisdiction over a defendant who, as a party to a contract, has had some connection with the forum state [the state in which the lawsuit is filed] or who should have anticipated that his conduct would have significant effects in that state. Here, the Hotel entered into a contract with a New Jersey entity, Libgo, which agreed to solicit business for the Hotel and derived a profit from that solicitation through sales of vacation packages. Although Libgo's business extends beyond New Jersey and throughout much of the East Coast, at least part of its customer base resides in this state. Likewise, as a result of this contract, the Hotel purposefully and successfully sought vacationers from New Jersey, and it derived a profit from them. Therefore, the Hotel should have reasonably anticipated that its conduct would have significant effects in New Jersey. [Emphasis added.]
* * * [A]dditional evidence of purposeful acts in New Jersey exists that fairly can be attributed to the Hotel and that are causally connected to plaintiff's decision to purchase the Hotel's vacation package * * * , [including] an ongoing, but undefined, relationship between the Hotel and * * * ARMC * * *. ARMC is a marketing organization that solicits business in the United States for the "Occidental Hotels Resorts," a group of which the defendant Hotel is a part. ARMC does not have any direct contact with any of the potential customers of the various hotels that it promotes, and it does not itself sell travel or vacation packages. However, [ARMC] * * * works closely with Libgo in developing marketing strategies for the Occidental Hotels Resorts in the New Jersey area pursuant to cooperative marketing agreements between ARMC and Libgo. * * * *
* * * [T]he defendant Hotel was featured, singly, [in 2003] in advertisements in the Newark Star Ledger on four occasions, including one in January * * * , prior to plaintiff's decision to book a vacation there.
We are satisfied * * * that * * * ARMC was operating [on behalf] of the Hotel when ARMC entered into cooperative marketing agreements with Libgo, and that ARMC's extensive contacts with Libgo in New Jersey regarding the marketing plan, together with the New Jersey fruits of that plan, can be attributed to the Hotel for jurisdictional purposes.
We are further persuaded that the targeted advertising conducted pursuant to the cooperative marketing agreement on behalf of the Hotel provided the minimum contacts necessary to support * * * jurisdiction in this case. [Emphasis added.]
• Decision and Remedy The state intermediate appellate court affirmed the lower court's ruling. The appellate court concluded that the hotel had contacts with New Jersey, consisting of a tour operator contract and marketing activities through ARMC and Libgo, during the relevant time period and that, in response to the marketing, Mastondrea booked a vacation at the hotel. "[T]his evidence was sufficient to support the assertion of... personal jurisdiction over the Hotel in this State."
• What If the Facts Were Different If Mastondrea had not seen Libgo and Allegro's ad, but had bought a Royal Hideaway vacation package on the recommendation of a Liberty Travel agent, is it likely that the result in this case would have been different Why or why not
• The Global Dimension What do the circumstances and the holding in this case suggest to a business firm that actively attempts to attract customers in a variety of jurisdictions