In a recent post, I questioned why personal jurisdiction was unquestioned. See Questioning Delaware's Control Over Controlling Stockholders. Personal jurisdiction is, of course, unquestionably fundamental, as evidenced by the Nevada Supreme Court's recent order in Rich v. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., Nv. S. Ct. Case No. 88278 (Jan. 8, 2025). The dispute arose from work performed by an Oklahoma based limited liability company, Jet Commercial Construction, LLC, on a fountain at the The Forum Shops in Las Vegas, Nevada. Forum Shops submitted a claim to Jet's insurance company, which was rejected due to an exclusion in the policy. Forum Shops then sued two members of the LLC, Messrs. Rich and Sharp, for negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract. After unsuccessfully seeking dismissal for want of personal jurisdiction, the two defendants sought a writ of prohibition from the Nevada Supreme Court.

The Nevada Supreme Court issued the writ. With respect to personal jurisdiction, it explained:

Petitioners were not involved with the emails discussing the certificate of insurance, nor were they even copied on those emails. The general liability insurance application bearing Sharp's signature was sent to Mt. Hawley in Illinois—not Nevada. And to the extent Rich purposefully availed himself of Nevada with visits to the work site and communications with Forum Shops employees, those contacts are not jurisdictionally significant because the alleged negligent misrepresentation did not arise out of or relate to those contacts. Instead, Rich's Nevada contacts were incidental to the fountain work and settling payment issues with subcontractors. 

Forum Shops also argued that Jet's minimum contacts impute to Rich and Sharp under an alter-ego theory. The Nevada Supreme Court also rejected this contention, finding that the Forum Shops failed to go beyond the pleadings and adduce "competent evidence of essential facts" supporting alter-ego based personal jurisdiction:

Forum Shops did not produce prima-facie evidence that recognizing Jet's LLC form promotes "fraud" or "manifest injustice," beyond the fact that Jet's alleged insolvency could make it difficult for Forum Shops to collect a prospective judgment. To be sure, Forum Shops failed to show the requisite "causal connection" between petitioners allegedly abusing the LLC form and Jet's inability to pay a judgment should Forum Shops prevail on its breach of contract claim.

So once again we see that personal jurisdiction matters.