Dominic P. Raffaele v. Compagnie Generale Maritime, S.A. Paris, and Unikai Hafenbetrieb, Gmbh

Dominic Raffaele, a longshoreman, appeals the dismissal for want of personal jurisdiction of his action for damages. Raffaele seeks to recover for injuries he suffered when a crate fell on him inside a container that he was unloading in Portland, Oregon.

Unikai Hafenbetrieb (Unikai), a German corporation, is a terminal operator in Hamburg, Germany, whose operations included the packing (“stuffing”) of the container unloaded by Raffaele. Raffaele contends that his injuries were the proximate result of Unikai’s negligence in propping a crate inside the container with a piece of dunnage. For purposes of this appeal, we assume that Raffaele’s evidence, had he been allowed to present it, would have been sufficient to send the case to the jury on the question of Unikai’s negligence. The only issue on this appeal is whether Unikai— which has no offices in the United States and solicits no business here — had the constitutionally required “minimum contacts” with the State of Oregon for the district court to exercise personal jurisdiction.

This court uses a two-step test in determining whether a state has personal jurisdiction. We first apply the forum state’s long-arm statute and then…