Perkins v. Benguet Consolidated Mining Co. et al. (342 U.S. 437)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 3, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 437 · 72 S. Ct. 413
- Decided
- March 3, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Burton
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Burton delivered the opinion of the Court. This case calls for an answer to the question whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States precludes Ohio from subjecting a foreign corporation to the jurisdiction of its courts in this action in personam. The corporation has been carrying on in Ohio a continuous and systematic, but limited, part of its general business. Its president, while engaged in doing such business in Ohio, has been served with summons in this proceeding. The cause of action sued upon did not arise in Ohio and does not relate to the corporation’s activities there. For the reasons hereafter stated, we hold that the Fourteenth Amendment leaves Ohio free to .take or decline jurisdiction over the corporation. After extended litigation elsewhere petitioner, Idonah Slade Perkins, a nonresident of Ohio, filed two actions in personam in the Court of Common Pleas of Clermont County, Ohio, against the several respondents. Among those sued is the Benguet Consolidated Mining Company, here called the mining company. It is styled a “sociedad anónima” under the laws of the Philippine Islands, where it owns and has operated profitable gold and silver mines. In one action petitioner seeks approximately $68,400 in dividends claimed to be due her as a stockholder. In the other she claims $2,500,000 damages…
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