Ratcliffe

Appelants are residents of the State of California. Respondent is an importer of foreign-made motorcycles and a domiciliary of the State of Idaho. Appellants brought this action in the Superior Court of Tulare County for breach of contract and misrepresentation. The complaint, in two causes of action, alleged that respondent breached his oral agreement to make appellants the northern California distributor for respondent’s imported “Wildcat” motorcycles and that respondent made numerous misrepresentations in connection with the distributorship.

Respondent made a special appearance in the superior court to quash service of summons; by affidavit, respondent averred that he never had been a domiciliary of California and that he never resided in this state or transacted any business with appellants.

At the hearing on the motion to quash service of summons, respondent testified that in 1969 he commenced to import “Wildcat” motorcycles from Taiwan and Japan and in the beginning sold the motorcycles in his chain of stores in Idaho. He said that in 1970, he was contacted by Frank Wheeler, a resident of Lancaster, California, and Wheeler agreed to purchase the motorcycles from…