Gravely Motor Plow & Cultivator Co. v. H. v. Carter Co., Inc

This is an appeal from a judgment awarding damages to appellee, hereafter called Carter Co., a California corporation, on a finding that the appellant, hereafter called Gravely Co., a West Virginia corporation, had broken its contract to deliver certain tractors to Carter Co.

Gravely Co. contends that no contract was entered into with Carter Co. for delivery to it of the tractors. Underlying this contention, Gravely claims that the district court lacked jurisdiction in personam over it because a service of summons on one John W. Heinen, general manager of Gravely Pacific, Inc., a corporate subsidiary of Gravely Co., was not a service on it, and that the court erred in denying its motion to quash that service.

We agree that the district court lacked such jurisdiction in personam. This is the view of the judge of the district court, who tried the case on its merits, but who held to the contrary because he felt that he was bound by the prior decision of another judge who had held the service to be a valid one on the Gravely Co.

The burden of proving a jurisdictional service within the California law is upon Carter Co. We agree with Gravely Co.’s contention that Carter Co. has not…