Court reviews whether it can properly exercise personal jurisdiction over a Kentucky corporation in a medical malpractice suit

KAMARJAH GORDON ET AL. v. GREENVIEW HOSPITAL, INC., D/B/A GREENVIEW REGIONAL HOSPITAL (Tenn. December 17, 2009)

This appeal involves the propriety of Tennessee's courts exercising general personal jurisdiction over a Kentucky corporation. The Kentucky corporation and other Tennessee parties were named as defendants in a medical malpractice action filed in the Circuit Court for Davidson County. The trial court granted the Kentucky corporation's motion for summary judgment on the ground of lack of personal jurisdiction, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Gordon v. Greenview Hosp., Inc., No. M2007-00633-COA-R3-CV, 2008 WL 802463 (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 24, 2008). We granted the plaintiffs' application for permission to appeal to determine whether the courts of Tennessee, consistent with the due process clause, may exercise personal jurisdiction over the Kentucky corporation. We have determined that (1) the Kentucky corporation's corporate filings in Kentucky listing the Tennessee address of the legal department of its parent corporation as its current principal office, (2) the fact that many of the corporation's officers and directors maintain offices in Tennessee, and (3) the fact that the Kentucky corporation is a subsidiary and remote subsidiary of two corporations whose primary places of business are in Tennessee are insufficient, individually and collectively, to provide a basis for exercising general personal jurisdiction over the Kentucky corporation.

Opinion may be found at:
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TSC/2009/gordonk_121709.pdf