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LeBlanc v. Kyle8/10/2000
This is an accelerated appeal from the trial court's denial of a special appearance. Larry Kyle sued E.L.M. LeBlanc (LeBlanc), Controlled Energy Corporation (Controlled Energy), and Cooper Butane Company (Cooper Butane) alleging that a water heater manufactured by LeBlanc was defective and caused a fire at his home. In his petition, Kyle alleged that he purchased the water heater from Cooper Butane, a Texas company, who received it from Controlled Energy, a Vermont distributor, who in turn received it from LeBlanc, a French manufacturer and distributor.
LeBlanc filed a special appearance in which it asserted that the court did not have jurisdiction over it because (1) it is not a Texas corporation and is not licensed to do business in Texas; (2) it does not engage in and has never engaged in business in Texas; (3) it does not maintain a place of business or have employees or other agents in Texas; and (4) it has not undertaken any act or transaction constituting minimum contacts with Texas, or otherwise acted in a way that would make assumption of jurisdiction comport with the requirements of due process. In support of its special appearance, LeBlanc filed the affidavit of its director general, which detailed the limited extent of its contacts with Texas.
In response to LeBlanc's special appearance, Controlled Energy filed the affidavit of John Norton, its vice president and chief financial officer. Norton's affidavit states that LeBlanc and Controlled Energy entered into a distribution contract in which LeBlanc's stated purpose was to "sell its products . . . in the Territory [i.e., the fifty states and the District of Columbia] through the intermediary of a qualified distributor having an organization of sales well-established in the Territory . . . ." The affidavit further states that, under the contract, LeBlanc was obligated to buy product liability insurance for the product sold and to obtain "AGA Lab" approval of its product. It also states that Controlled Energy sold 452 of LeBlanc's water heaters to individuals and dealers in Texas between 1994 and 1999.
Also in response to LeBlanc's special appearance, Cooper Butane filed the affidavit of its owner and president, Frank Miller, which states that Cooper Butane purchased LeBlanc water heaters from L.A. Klein in Dallas. (The record is otherwise silent as to who L.A. Klein is.) Miller also states that, over a fifteen-year period, Cooper Butane has purchased approximately thirty LeBlanc water heaters for resale to its customers in Texas. Miller further states that Cooper Butane handles technical assistance, troubleshooting, and warranty claims through Controlled Energy and that it has made ten such warranty claims.
In a letter to the parties, the trial court denied the special appearance, citing the contract between LeBlanc and Controlled Energy. On appeal LeBlanc contends that the trial court erred in assuming personal jurisdiction. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Standard and Scope of Review
A nonresident defendant must negate all bases of personal jurisdiction to prevail in a special appearance. CSR Ltd. v. Link, 925 S.W.2d 591, 596 (Tex. 1996). Whether a court can assume personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant is a question of law that we review de novo. Hotel Partners v. Craig, 993 S.W.2d 116, 120 (Tex. App.ÄDallas 1994, writ denied). We review the trial court's resolution of any underlying factual questions for factual sufficiency of the evidence. Id. We will affirm if we can uphold the trial court's order on any legal theory finding support in the evidence. See Happy Indus. Corp. v. American Specialties, Inc., 983 S.W.2d 844, 846 (Tex. App.ÄCorpu
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