Construction, Criminal and Personal Injury Matters
The Eleventh Circuit decided one appeal on a personal jurisdiction issue in a construction dispute, one criminal matter and one personal injury case.
In PVC Windoors, Inc. v. Babbitbay Beach Constr., N.V., No. 08-10401, an action for fraud and breach of contract arising out of two contracts for the supply and installation of windows and doors for a hotel construction project on the island of Saint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, the court of appeals affirmed the dismissal of the action for lack of personal jurisdiction where defendants did not do business in Florida, were not otherwise subject to the reach of Florida's long-arm statute, and lacked minimum contacts with Florida.
In US v. Dodge, No. 08-10802, the court affirmed defendant's conviction for failure to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), on the ground that SORNA's broad definition of "sex offense" encompassed the conduct that underlies defendant's conviction, namely knowingly transferring obscene matter over the Internet to minors.
Dietz v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., No. 09-10167, involved a personal injury action against a drug manufacturer alleging that plaintiff's decedent committed suicide due to taking defendant's antidepressant. The court affirmed summary judgment for defendant, holding that plaintiff could not demonstrate that defendant's alleged failure to warn plaintiff's doctor about increased suicide risks associated with the drug proximately caused the decedent to commit suicide.