Also known as: jurisdictional bases · basis for jurisdiction · jurisdictional grounds
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A connection or relationship between a forum, a defendant or subject, and a claim that permits a court to exercise personal or subject-matter jurisdiction.
Jillian James and her former spouse lived in State A with their child until the spouse moved to State B. Jillian files for custody in State A after the child returns for summer visitation. State A asserts jurisdiction solely because the child is physically present, but the court rejects that ground and instead relies on the fact that all other states have declined to exercise jurisdiction under the statutory criteria.
Joanna Jung sues a private actor in federal court under a federal statute that regulates gender-motivated violence occurring entirely within one state. The defendant moves to dismiss, arguing that Congress lacked authority to create the cause of action because the regulated conduct does not substantially affect interstate commerce.
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Jada Jones and her husband separate while living in Wisconsin with their children. The husband takes the children to Ohio. Wisconsin enters a custody order based on the children's domicile there. The Ohio court later recognizes the order because domicile provided the necessary jurisdictional basis for the Wisconsin decree.
Jose Jimenez, a nonresident, owns shares in a Delaware corporation. June Jiang files a derivative suit in Delaware and seizes the shares as the asserted basis for jurisdiction over Jose. The court dismisses the action because the stock's statutory presence supplies no independent jurisdictional basis when the claim does not relate to the shares.
John Jones, a New York resident, is served with process while changing planes in California. The plaintiff sues him in California for an accident that occurred in Arizona. The court upholds jurisdiction because personal service during physical presence in the state supplies the required jurisdictional basis regardless of the claim's lack of connection to California.
Jefferson Trust, a California plaintiff, sues Asahi, a Japanese valve manufacturer, in California after a motorcycle accident in that state. Asahi's only connection is that its valves reached California through the stream of commerce after being sold to a Taiwanese company. The court finds no jurisdictional basis because Asahi did not purposefully direct its product toward California.
The resulting judgment is void and subject to collateral attack because due process requires a sufficient connection between the forum, the defendant, and the claim.
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No. Physical presence of the child is neither necessary nor sufficient under the UCCJEA. The court must satisfy one of the statutory grounds listed in subsection (a).
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Once jurisdiction attaches, its continuance does not require the constant existence of the original basis, although fairness and judicial administration limit how far jurisdiction may extend.
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No. Property ownership supplies no automatic basis when the claim does not arise from or relate to that property. Minimum contacts must still be shown.
…in the corporation was considered the subject of the lawsuit because the suit was a shareholder’s derivative action, is not a basis for jurisdiction because the stock was not the subject of the lawsuit. The suit was based on claims against the individual defendants, not on the stock itself. Pp. 200-209. (b) Even if the quasi in rem…