Gill

This is an appeal by the plaintiffs from two successive orders granting the motion of defendant Surgitool, Incorporated, a Pennsylvania corporation, to quash service of summons and complaint upon it. The ground of defendant’s motion was that it “is a foreign corporation not doing business within the State of California and therefore is not subject to the process of the Superior Court of this State.” In support of its position it tendered the affidavit of its president, while in opposition plaintiffs presented the declaration of Phil Nelson, an employee in the supply department of the Los Angeles County General Hospital. After weighing the facts thus presented in these two documents, the trial court granted the motion to quash, and followed its order so doing with another written order to the same effect. We have concluded that the orders should be affirmed.

A brief word about the nature of the action will help us evaluate the situation. Plaintiffs sued for $350,000 damages as the heirs of one Benny Gill on the theory that his death had been caused by the failure of a “ certain number 3 Magovern Aortic Valve,” which was used to replace his own aortic valve as a step in a surgical…