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Kane v. New Jersey
While physically “tagging” someone in the forum state seemed to be a fairly straightforward way to determine personal jurisdiction (per the rule in Pennoyer), the situation became more complex when applied to corporations – which could not be physically “tagged” due to their incorporeal nature. Additionally, as more people gained access to convenient means of transportation and interstate travel, particularly the automobile, there was more litigation between parties from different states, and there were more issues in exercising personal jurisdiction. For example, could a court in State A exercise personal jurisdiction over a defendant from State B who allegedly caused a car accident in State A before retreating to State B prior to being “tagged”?
The Supreme Court encountered this issue in Kane v. New Jersey, 242 U.S. 160, 37 S. Ct. 30. New Jersey, like several other states at the time, had established visitor laws requiring nonresident drivers who drove on public highways in New Jersey to file with the Secretary of State papers appointing the Secretary as their agent to accept service of process on their behalf for legal proceedings against them arising from the “operation of [their] registered motor vehicle, within [New Jersey].”
Note that long-established and well-accepted law, in place when Pennoyer was decided, provided that if a person (or an incorporeal entity) appointed an agent for purposes of accepting service of process, then an in-state tag of the agent was sufficient to establish personal jurisdiction over the agent's principal. Visitor statutes like those described above provided that one could "tag" the Secretary of State by mailing certain documents to them.
The operation of these visitor statutes raised questions. First, does the Due Process Clause allow a state to punish a driver who drove in that state for failing to comply with the visitor statutes? The present case answers that question. Notice where the defendant was arrested; does that make this case easy, even under Pennoyer?
A second question these visitor statutes raised was more difficult: what can a state do with/to a driver who allegedly causes an accident while driving in the state but who has not complied with the visitor statute and has since exited the state? The next case answers that question.
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