Arizona Court May Exercise Personal Jurisdiction Over Non-Resident Defendants Who Possess Purposeful, Minimum Contacts With State

The Planning Group of Scottsdale v. Lake Mathews Mineral Properties, Ltd.
Ariz. Supreme Court, January 21, 2011

Authored By The JSH Appellate Team

This case involves a suit between Arizona Plaintiffs and California Defendants.

TPG, an Arizona LLC, contacted Defendant LMMP, a California limited partnership, regarding providing investment capital for an LMMP mining operation. To negotiate TPG’s investment, LMMP employees initiated several phone calls, e-mails, faxes, and letters to TPG in Arizona. TPG employees traveled to California for faceto- face meetings regarding the investment.

The court found that California-based LMMP’s contacts with Arizona-based TPG, culminating in investment capital from TPG to LMMP, were sufficient minimum contacts to exercise personal jurisdiction over non-resident LMMP. Moreover, given that the Plaintiffs were Arizona companies, that Arizona law applied, and that LMMP was located in a neighboring state, the court found it reasonable to exercise personal jurisdiction over LMMP.