Bolkiah

The superior court denied petitioners’ motions to quash service of the summons and complaint for allegedly defective service of process. Petitioners contend they qualify as “foreign states,” thus, to be effective, service had to be made according to the requirements of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ( 28 U.S.C. § 1602 et seq.). In the alternative, petitioners contend real parties in interest’s attempts at service of process under California law were deficient and therefore ineffective for the superior court to acquire personal jurisdiction over them. Accordingly, petitioners request a writ of mandate to compel respondent superior court to grant their motions to quash.

We find the record evidence does not establish petitioners were either “political subdivisions of a sovereign state” or “instrumentalities of a foreign state.” Accordingly, we conclude the instant case does not implicate the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act for service of process or otherwise. We further conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining service of process under California law was adequate to acquire personal jurisdiction over petitioners. We therefore deny…