Harris Rutsky & Co. Insurance Services v. Bell & Clements Ltd.

We are asked to decide whether a federal district court in California can properly exercise personal jurisdiction over London, England-based entities alleged to have interfered with a California corporation’s contractual and.business relations by their actions in Europe.

I

Harris Rutsky & Co., dba American Special Risk Insurance Services (“ASR”) is a California corporation, whose principal place of business is Woodland Hills, California. ASR is an insurance brokerage firm, licensed and regulated under the laws of California. ASR customarily enters into agreements with nonadmitted foreign surplus line insurers. Such a contract — the industry parlance is ‘coverholder agreement’ — allows ASR, acting as the foreign insurer’s agent, to bind the foreign insurer to coverage in California. The foreign insurer thereby gains access to California’s lucrative insurance markets, from which it is otherwise barred.

Sometime prior to 1996, ASR entered into a coverholder agreement with Zurich Reinsurance (London) Limited (“Zurich”), a London-based surplus fines insurer. The agreement called for a Lloyd’s-affiliated insurance broker to act as an intermediary between the parties. The…