HOUSTON – A company headquartered in New Jersey will have to keep litigating an injury lawsuit in Harris County, thanks to a ruling made by the First Court of Appeals today in an interlocutory appeal.
Court records show Mario Carlos, under the Jones Act, sued Weeks Marine for injuries he allegedly sustained in two separate incidents while working on vessels owned by the company.
The suit was filed in Harris County District Court last year.
Weeks Marine filed a special appearance asserting that the court had neither general nor specific jurisdiction over it because Texas is not its principal place of business and because there is no substantial connection between the operative facts of the litigation and Weeks Marine’s contacts with Texas.
The trial court denied the special appearance, and Weeks Marine appealed.
On appeal, Weeks Marine argues that the trial court lacked general jurisdiction because it is not “at home” in Texas, court records state.
And while the First Court agreed, justices found that specific personal jurisdiction over Weeks Marine still exists in the case, affirming the trial court’s ruling.
“Weeks Marine has presented no compelling argument or evidence to justify why this is the rare occasion in which a nonresident’s minimum forum contacts have been established but the exercise of personal jurisdiction nevertheless offends traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice,” the opinion states.
“We conclude that specific personal jurisdiction over Weeks Marine exists in this case, and we hold that the trial court did not err by denying the special appearance.”
Mario is represented in part by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee.
Weeks Marine is represented by attorneys Andrew Nash and Thomas Kent Morrison.
Appeals case No. 01-21-00015-CV