Calder vs. Jones Analysis
Brigitte Nichols
BUS/415
December 12, 2011
Tanesha Blye
Calder vs. Jones Analysis
The National Enquirer, Inc. is a Florida corporation with its principal place of business in
Florida. It publishes the National Enquirer, a national weekly tabloid newspaper with a total of more than 5 million copies circulated. About 600,000 copies, twice as many as any other state, are sold in California. An article was published by the National Enquirer regarding Shirley Jones, an entertainer. Jones, a California resident, filed a civil lawsuit against the National Enquirer and its president, a Florida resident.
Nature of the claim
The plaintiff Jones brought a civil case against the National Enquirer and its president at that time, stating defamation, invasion of privacy and emotional distress. The claim of defamation is the issuance of an untrue statement about another person, which causes that person emotional suffering (Dailey, 2011). In this case the plaintiff Jones stipulates under the elements of defamation that false statements were made, that they were published (Dailey, 2011). The plaintiff claimed the statements resulted in personal damage.
The long-arm statute and National enquirer
Long-arm statute is defined as giving the local state court jurisdiction over an out-of-state company or individual whose actions caused damage locally or to a local resident (Hill, 2011). The National enquirer and its President knowingly sold and distributed that issue of the tabloid in the state of California, this allowed for the long-arm statute to be applied. In this case the long-arm statute is applied since the National enquirer and its President had minimum contact within the state under the standard of International Shoe v. Washington (Law School Case Briefs,), thus personal jurisdiction could be applied in the civil case.
Ethics in attempting to avoid California jurisdiction
Under the laws of personal jurisdiction the President of the...