Ovid Demaris v. Herman M. Greenspun AKA Hank Greenspun and Las Vegas Sun, Inc., a Nevada Corporation

Demaris filed an action for libel in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, under that court’s diversity of citizenship jurisdiction ( 28 U.S.C. § 1332 ). The defendants are the LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. (hereafter the SUN), and Herman Greenspun, its president, publisher, editor, and its major stockholder. The SUN is incorporated in Nevada and has its principal place of business there. Greenspun is a citizen of Nevada. The district court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and this appeal followed.

Demaris contends that the dismissal was improper and that the defendants’ contacts with California permit the district court in Southern California to assert personal juris diction over them for the limited purposes of this particular case.

This Court in Church of Scientology of California v. Adams, 584 F.2d 893, 896 (9th Cir.1978), considered the same long arm statute that is in issue here, Section 410.10 of the California Code of Civil Procedure and laid down the test that is to apply in determining if personal jurisdiction exists. The applicable test is…