Also known as: substantial contact · sufficient contacts
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A defendant's purposeful and continuous connections with a forum state that are sufficient to support the exercise of personal jurisdiction under the Due Process Clause. The contacts must arise from the defendant's own deliberate conduct directed at the forum and must make it reasonable to require the defendant to defend there.
Summit Finance leased equipment to PetroNova for use abroad and sued in State X after default. PetroNova owned obsolete rigs left on a decommissioned site in State X years earlier. Because the rigs had no connection to the lease dispute and PetroNova conducted no other business in State X, the court found no substantial contacts and dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Global Parts Inc. entered a five-year supply franchise with a dealer in State Y requiring monthly deliveries, training visits, and revenue reporting. When the dealer defaulted, Global Parts sued in State Y. The court found substantial contacts from the deliberate, ongoing performance directed at the forum and upheld jurisdiction.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
TechWare Corp. signed a multi-year distribution agreement with a retailer in State Z that included quarterly shipments, marketing support, and a forum-selection clause. After a payment dispute arose from that agreement, TechWare sued in State Z. The court held the continuous, purposeful dealings created substantial contacts supporting personal jurisdiction.
The defendant must have purposefully directed activities at the forum through an ongoing relationship such as a long-term contract requiring performance there, regular communications, or choice-of-law clauses. Sporadic or unilateral actions by the plaintiff do not count.
Supporting sources
No. When the claim has no relation to the property, its mere presence does not satisfy the minimum contacts standard. The defendant must have engaged in purposeful conduct tied to the dispute.
Supporting sources
Courts examine the contract's duration, the volume of performance directed at the forum, actual purchases or training visits, and any choice-of-law provision. These factors together show a deliberate, continuing relationship that supports jurisdiction.
Supporting sources
…merits emphasis that the Court's resurrection of the unawareness factor is indispensable to its holding. For, in Brewer , substantial contact and conversation with a confined defendant preceded delivery of the "Christian burial speech." Yet the Court clearly deemed the speech critical in finding a Massiah violation; it thus…