Case of the Day: Sia v. Berhad, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60569 (W.D. Wash. Apr. 20, 2017)

Summary:

Plaintiffs are families of the passengers on AirAsia flight 8501, which crashed in Indonesia. Defendants are the Indonesian corporation that operates AirAsia, and U.S. companies that manufactured the parts of the crashed airplane. The Indonesian defendants moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The court granted the motion.

Takeaway:

At this point in personal jurisdiction jurisprudence, this type of case is nearly automatic dismissal. There is simply no way to sue a foreign company that is not incorporated in the United States, even if it does significant amount of business with the U.S. If it is a company like AirAsia that hardly does any business in the U.S., it is totally a lost cause.