Prop 65 Litigation--Jurisdiction

On November 26, 1996, the California Court of Appeal (First Appellate District, Division 2) reversed an order dismissing a private enforcement action for lack of personal jurisdiction.

In the action, As You Sow v. Crawford Laboratories, Inc., the defendant claimed that the court lacked personal jurisdiction, in that its sales in California were limited to the United States General Services Administration, and 16 individual sales between 1988 and 1994, which amounted to less than 0.3% of its total sales. The court held that GSA sales would not establish jurisdiction, but that direct sales to California distributors would support a claim of specific jurisdiction. Left unsettled was whether the company's liability would be limited to those direct sales to California distributors.