Star Aviation, Inc. v. Superior Court

In Star Aviation, Inc. v. Superior Court (1977) 73 Cal.App.3d 807, the court rejected a virtually identical argument that California had jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant because defendant "may reasonably foresee that California residents will come to Colorado to use its facilities." There a California resident went to Colorado and there boarded one of the local flights run by the Colorado defendant to a Colorado ski resort area. The flight crashed, killing the California resident. Defendant had no contacts with California other than three landings here within the preceding ten years, each time carrying Colorado residents only. The Star Aviation court observed: " In Buckeye Boiler Co., supra, the California Supreme Court held that this state had jurisdiction over a nonresident corporation where the defendant sold machinery to a company in South San Francisco and it was reasonably foreseeable that this machinery would be resold or used in California and injure a resident. The court found that, based on these actions, the defendant was purposefully engaging in economic activity in California. (Id., at p. 904 (458 P.2d 57).) In the present case, however, petitioner has performed no purposeful activity in California connected with this cause of action. (Star Aviation, 73 Cal.App.3d at 811.)