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FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE # 36 FROM: CLERK OF SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA The Opinions handed down on the 20th day of May, 2003, are as follows: BY VICTORY, J.: 2002-CC- 2644 PAMELA ALONSO v. BILLIE B. LINE, JR. AND WISNER, ADAMS, WALKER & LINE, P.C. (Parish of E. Baton Rouge) For the reasons stated herein, the judgment of the court of appeal is reversed insofar as it found no personal jurisdiction over Line, and the matter is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings. REVERSED IN PART AND REMANDED.

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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
No. 2002-CC-2644 PAMELA ALONSO VERSUS BILLIE B. LINE, JR. AND WISNER, ADAMS, WALKER & LINE, P.C. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL FIRST CIRCUIT, PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE VICTORY, Justice We granted this writ to determine whether Louisiana has personal jurisdiction over an Alabama attorney based upon either the Louisiana long-arm statute, La. R.S. 13:3201, or personal service upon the attorney in Louisiana while he was waiting to testify at a hearing on his exception of lack of personal jurisdiction. Finding that sufficient minimum contacts with Louisiana support the exercise of personal jurisdiction under La. R.S. 13:3201, we reverse the judgments of the lower courts and remand the matter to the trial court for further proceedings. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY On January 14, 1998, plaintiff, Pamela Alonso ("Alonso") and her mother were involved in an automobile accident in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when they were rear ended at an intersection. At that time, Alonso was a resident of Alabama and her mother was a resident of Louisiana, as was the driver of the other vehicle. Both vehicles were insured under contracts of insurance issued in Louisiana. In March of 1998, Alonso contacted defendant, Billie Line ("Line"), an Alabama attorney whom she had known since 1996 and who had represented her in connection with several real estate closings and related matters. Alonso told Line that she had been involved in a traffic accident in Louisiana and that she had been visited by an insurance adjuster
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from State Farm Insurance Co. regarding the accident and asked Line if he would represent her in connection with the accident and deal with the insurance adjuster. It was Alonso's understanding that Line was going to represent her in connection with the accident and handle all aspects of the case. They discussed a fee and Line told her that the usual fee in this type of case was a one-third contingency fee but that they would wait and see what happened before committing to a fee. There was no written representation agreement. Alonso and Line went over the details of the accident, discussed the medical aspects of the case, and he subsequently called the insurance adjuster in Alabama to discuss the case. In June of 1998, Alonso moved to Louisiana, at which time she was also being represented by Line in connection with an Alabama lease dispute. Line contacted Alonso several times by telephone in Louisiana to inform her of the status of the lease dispute. At the time Line undertook the representation, he was a sole practitioner, though in January of 1999 he joined the law firm of Wisner, Adams, Walker & Line, P.C. He confirmed that he agreed to represent Alonso in connection with the accident but testified it was never his intention to file suit. He testified that his usual practice would be to try and settle the case and if he could not, he would refer the case to another Alabama attorney. He testified that he contacted the State Farm insurance adjuster in Alabama to inform him that he would be filing a claim on Alonso's behalf. Line testified as to his belief that because Alonso was an Alabama resident when the accident occurred, Alabama law would apply, including that state's two-year statute of limitations, and that the case could be filed in Alabama. After Alonso called him in late 1999 checking on the status of the case, in January of 2000, Line called the adjuster and was told that the adjuster had closed the file because the one-year Louisiana prescriptive period had run. Upon learning this, Line contacted a Louisiana attorney through Martindale Hubbell who confirmed that Louisiana had a one-year
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prescriptive period that applied to this case. He then called Alonso on January 11, 2000, and told her that the statute of limitations had run. On January 11, 2001, Alonso filed a malpractice suit in Louisiana against Line and the law firm of Wisner, Adams, Walker & Line, P.C., for failing to timely pursue the matter. On January 22, 2001, Line and the law firm were served in Alabama through the Louisiana long-arm statute. They did not contest service, but filed an exception alleging lack of personal jurisdiction. The hearing was held on December 3, 2001 and Line traveled to Baton Rouge to attend and testify at the hearing. While waiting in the courtroom for the hearing to commence, he was personally served with an additional copy of the petition. At the hearing, Alonso alleged that because personal service had been effected upon Line in Louisiana, the issue of whether personal jurisdiction existed under the Long-arm Statute was moot. The trial judge took that matter under advisement, but also heard testimony from Line regarding his contacts with Louisiana. Line testified that his only contact with Louisiana was as a free agent with the New Orleans Saints football team in 1971 when he trained with them in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He testified that he is not licensed to practice law in Louisiana and has never solicited business in this state or advertised in this state. Without deciding whether jurisdiction was proper under the long-arm statute, the trial court denied the exception of lack of personal jurisdiction finding that service within the state conferred personal jurisdiction. The court of appeal reversed in a 2-1 decision, ruling as follows: WRIT GRANTED. The trial court's judgment denying relator's exception of lack of personal jurisdiction is hereby reversed, and judgment is rendered in favor of Billie B. Line, Jr. and Wisner, Adams, Walker & Line, P.C. on the basis that there were insufficient minimum contacts with the State of Louisiana to exercise personal jurisdiction over the nonresident defendants. See LSA-R.S. 13:3201; LSA-C.C.P. art. 930; and Griffith v. French, 97-2635, p. 3 (La. App. 1st Cir. 12/28/98), 723 So. 2d 1140, 1142; writ denied, 99-0220 (La. 3/19/99), 740 So. 2d 116.
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Alonso v. Line, 02-0786 (La. App. 1 Cir. 9/24/02).1 We granted this writ to determine whether the Louisiana court has personal jurisdiction over Line in this case. Alonso v. Line, 02-2644 (La. 1/10/03).2 DISCUSSION Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 6 defines personal jurisdiction as "the legal power and authority of a court to render a personal judgment against a party to an action or proceeding." Pursuant to that article, the exercise of personal jurisdiction in this case requires service of process on the defendant, and "the submission of the party to the jurisdiction of the court by commencing an action or by the waiver of objection to jurisdiction by failure to timely file the declinatory exception." La. C.C.P. art. 6(A). In addition, pursuant to La. C.C.P. art. 6, " a court of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident on any basis consistent with the constitution of this state and with the Constitution of the United States." La. C.C.P. art. 6(B).

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Judge Fitzsimmons concurred as follows:

Fitzsimmons, J., concurs in the granting of the writ. Actual personal service on Mr. Line, while he was physically present in Louisiana, would usually satisfy any question of personal jurisdiction. However, he was in Louisiana only to plead the peremptory exception raising the objection of lack of personal jurisdiction in the same case for which he was served. We must recognize a jurisprudential rule granting the exceptor immunity from personal service on Louisiana suits while physically present in Louisiana to encourage litigants to come before the court and argue the lack of personal jurisdiction, and protect the right to litigants that wish to represent themselves. To preserve the standard rule of attachment of jurisdiction upon personal service in the home state of the suit, this immunity from service would only apply to the case in which the exceptor pled and wished to argue the exception of lack of personal jurisdiction. With no valid personal service on Mr. Line, the absence of minimum contacts upheld his claim of lack of personal jurisdiction. For these reasons, I concur in the grant of the writ. The court of appeal found no minimum contacts sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction over the law firm. Although no one has seriously addressed Louisiana's jurisdiction over the law firm, we do not disturb the court of appeal's ruling on this issue. We note that Line, and not his law firm, was hired by plaintiff, that no service was made on the law firm other than under the long-arm statute, and that plaintiff has not established sufficient minimum contacts with the law firm, with which she had no contract. 4
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We discussed the history of Louisiana's long-arm Statute, whereby this state's courts can constitutionally exercise personal jurisdiction over non-residents, in Ruckstuhl v. Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp., 98-1126 (La. 4/13/99), 731 So. 2d 881, cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1019, 120 S.Ct. 526, 145 L. Ed. 2d 407 (1999), as follows: Historically, the jurisdiction of the state courts to render judgments in personam was limited to a defendant's physical presence within the court's territorial jurisdiction. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U.S. 714, 733, 24 L. Ed. 565 (1877). However, recognizing the realities of modern commercial life, the United States Supreme Court in International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), rejected the legal fiction of "presence" and instead focused its attention on the due process aspect of personal jurisdiction. The Court held that subjecting a nonresident defendant to a judgment in personam requires that he must "have certain minimum contacts with [the state] such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend `traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.'" International Shoe, 326 U.S. at 316, 66 S. Ct. 154 (citing Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457, 463, 61 S. Ct. 339, 85 L.Ed. 278 (1940)). Further, "[w]hether due process is satisfied must depend . . . upon the quality and nature of the activity in relation to the fair and orderly administration of the laws." Id. at 319, 66 S. Ct. at 154. The Louisiana legislature enacted Louisiana's first Long-arm Statute in 1964 in order "to permit the courts of this state to tap the full potential of jurisdiction in personam over nonresidents permitted by International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95, 161 A.L.R. 1057 (1945); and McGee v. international Life Insurance Company, 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957)." La. R.S. 13:3201, Comment (a). 731 So. 2d at 884. The original long-arm statute, La. R.S. 13:3201, listed specific activities by a defendant which would subject it to the personal jurisdiction of this state, as follows: A court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident, who acts directly or by an agent, as to a cause of action arising from the nonresident's: (a) transacting any business in this state: (b) contracting to supply services or things in this state; (c) causing injury or damage by an offense or quasi offense committed through an act or omission in this state; (d) causing injury or damage in this state by an offense or
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quasi offense committed through an act or omission outside of this state if he regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives substantial revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered, in this state; or (e) having an interest in, using, or possessing a real or immovable property in this state. In addition, La. R.S. 13:3202 expressly limited La. R.S. 13:3201 to causes of action arising from acts or omission enumerated therein.3 However, as further explained in Ruckstuhl: . . . realizing that the Long-arm Statute still did not really extend to the limits allowed by due process, in 1987, the legislature amended La. R.S. 13:3201 by Acts 1987, no. 418 to add Subsection B which provides: In addition to the provisions of [13:3201(A)], a court of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident on any basis consistent with the constitution of this state and the Constitution of the United States. ... Accordingly, "[t]he limits of the Louisiana Long-arm Statute and the limits of constitutional due process are now coextensive." Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. v. Avco Corp., 513 So. 2d 1188, 1192 (La. 1987). "Now, under the express wording of the present Long-arm Statute, the sole inquiry into jurisdiction over a nonresident is a one-step analysis of the constitutional due process requirements." Id. 731 So. 2d at 885. "Since the 1987 amendment, the courts generally have ignored the original [statutorily-enumerated] long-arm provisions." "However, the specific contacts listed in LSA-R.S. 13:3201A, which once set out the limits of Louisiana's long-arm
In reaction to the United States Supreme Court decision of World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 100 S. Ct. 559, 62 L. Ed. 2d 490 (1980), in 1984, Subsection (h) was added to provide for jurisdiction over a cause of action arising from a nonresident's manufacture of a product or component part of a product which causes injury or damages in this state under certain circumstances. Subsection (h), now subsection (8), provides: Manufacturing of a product or component thereof which caused damage or injury in this state, if at the time of placing the product into the stream of commerce, the manufacturer could have foreseen, realized, expected, or anticipated that the product may eventually be found in this state by reason of its nature and the manufacturer's marketing practices. 6
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jurisdiction, now serve as a `valuable list of . . . contacts sufficient to give rise to in personam jurisdiction.'" Frank L. Maraist and Harry T. Lemmon, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Vol. 1, Civil Procedure,

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