Hinckley Allen obtained dismissal of a complaint in Providence County Superior Court for lack of personal jurisdiction. The complaint was filed against a Hinckley Allen client, a cosmetic company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in New York. Hinckley Allen filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, which the Judge granted.
The Court addressed specific personal jurisdiction in Rhode Island, including the stream of commerce theory. The factors favoring a dismissal included Plaintiffs’ flawed arguments that Defendant could reasonably expect their products to be sold in Rhode Island under the stream of commerce theory, as they failed to point to any of Defendant’s actions directed towards Rhode Island and instead focused their attention on Plaintiffs’ own connections to the jurisdiction.
In the decision, the Judge stated, “although placing a product into the stream of commerce that reaches the forum state can support the imposition of jurisdiction over a defendant, there must be some additional overt act which the Defendant purposefully directed toward the forum for him or her to anticipate being haled into court there.”