Photo of Jamie Steiner

Jamie focuses on a wide range of complex commercial disputes. She has experience taking cases through trial and appeal in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois, where she is licensed, as well as various other state and federal courts. Jamie has frequently worked with clients across industries on real estate, transportation, health care, financial, insurance, and cannabis business disputes.

Mallory v. Norfolk S. R.R. Co., Civ. A. No. 3 EAP 2021, Slip. Op. J-49-2021 (Pa. Dec. 22, 2021) may be one of the most cited decisions in Pennsylvania state courts these days, as defendants file an array of motions seeking dismissal of their clients for lack of personal jurisdiction in cases where the only nexus between the defendant and Pennsylvania is the defendant’s registration to do business in the Commonwealth. We previously blogged on this issue here and here, and we were hopeful that the bold statement made in Mallory would clarify the previously murky law on point, but the battle regarding consent jurisdiction rages on.

We previously blogged on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Mallory v. Norfolk S. R.R. Co., Civ. A. No. 3 EAP 2021, Slip. Op. J-49-2021 (Pa. Dec. 22, 2021),  which put an end to general jurisdiction based solely on registration to do business in the Commonwealth.  Since the issuance of this landscape-shifting decision, courts in the Commonwealth have seen a flurry of ”Mallory motions” coming in all shapes and sizes. So far, plaintiff’s response has been uniform – Mallorys holding is limited and does not apply to defendants whose dealings are entirely “interstate” and who have no “footprint” in the Commonwealth. This attempt to minimize the impact of Mallory was recently rejected by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in Emery v. U.S. Steel Corp. giving a glimpse of hope to foreign defendants haled to court in Pennsylvania.

On December 22, 2021, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a decision in Mallory v. Norfolk S. R.R. Co., Civ. A. No. 3 EAP 2021, Slip. Op. J-49-2021, at 33, 44 (Pa. Dec. 22, 2021) that is sure to become the pillar of jurisdictional challenges going forward. The Court unanimously held that general jurisdiction does not exist solely on the basis of a company’s registration to do business in Pennsylvania.