Out-of-State Ivy League School May Be Sued in Pa., Jones Says

Shannon P. Duffy

A Pennsylvania man who was rendered quadriplegic when attempting to perform a backflip in a Cornell University gymnastics arena has won a hard-fought battle to keep his lawsuit against the university in a Pennsylvania court.

Reversing one of his own decisions, U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II has ruled that Cornell University is subject to general personal jurisdiction in Pennsylvania courts because the New York-based university maintains a full-time office with paid staff in Pennsylvania that engages in year-round recruiting and fundraising efforts.

Jones' ruling in Duchesneau v. Cornell University bucks a significant trend. Most often, when colleges and universities are named as defendants in out-of-state lawsuits, they succeed in securing a home court advantage because the rules of personal jurisdiction simply aren't triggered by the ordinary amount of alumni relations and student recruiting.

That's exactly how Jones saw the issue when he concluded in a February 2009 decision that Randall Duchesneau's suit should be transferred to the Northern District of New York.

In the February decision, Jones concluded that Cornell "lacks 'continuous and systematic business contacts' with Pennsylvania so as to justify the exercise of general jurisdiction," and that the contacts the plaintiffs had cited in support of the exercise of general jurisdiction "are those in which any nationally prominent university would engage."

As a result, Jones concluded that "finding general jurisdiction here would render any similar institution subject to general jurisdiction in most, if not all states."

But plaintiffs attorneys Stewart J. Eisenberg and Daniel J. Sherry Jr. of Eisenberg Rothweiler Winkler Eisenberg & Jeck urged Jones to reconsider and begged for the opportunity to conduct limited discovery focused on jurisdictional issues.

That discovery apparently bore considerable fruit because Jones was impressed enough that he changed his ruling and has now declared that Cornell's business contacts with Pennsylvania are "extensive and pervasive."

"Based on this more complete evidence of record, the court now concludes that Cornell has continuous and systematic contacts with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania such that it could reasonably anticipate being haled into court there," Jones wrote.

Jones also chastised Cornell for submitting an affidavit from its treasurer, Patricia Johnson, that was later shown to contain a glaring error. Johnson had sworn that Cornell was not registered as a Pennsylvania corporation, but the plaintiffs later discovered that it is.

In a footnote, Jones was dismissive of Cornell's explanation, saying, "it is no excuse to now state that at the time her affidavit was written, Ms. Johnson, a senior representative of Cornell, had no idea that Cornell has been registered to do business in Pennsylvania since 1952. Cornell is a sophisticated corporate institution that presumably keeps records in a responsible manner, and it should be aware of where it is licensed to operate."

The fact of corporate registration, Jones said, "could have, and should have, been ascertained before drafting the sworn affidavit to the contrary and asking the court to rely upon it in deciding a significant motion."

Jones said he was "compelled to note" his "concern about the content and phrasing" of Johnson's original affidavit and "her apparent lack of (a) involvement with its preparation, and (b) understanding of the content therein."

In addition to the corporate registration, Jones also focused on Cornell's operation of a "regional office" in Chester County, Pa., for the past 45 years. The university currently rents a 1,300-square-foot space where full- and part-time workers earn salaries that totaled more than $1.2 million over the past three years.

Cornell also pays Pennsylvania state and local taxes for its employees and maintains a Pennsylvania Tax ID number, Jones noted, and has a commercial lease that requires the university to maintain $5 million in insurance.

The university's lawyer, Allen R. Bunker of Comeau & Bunker, argued that the work of the regional office is merely "alumni relations" that are unrelated to "educational objectives."

Jones was unimpressed, saying: "[T]he court finds these terms to be nebulous at best. The record reflects that, via the [regional office], Cornell engages in fundraising from both alumni and outside donors," and that the university "explicitly advertises itself" with a Cornell University sign that generates walk-in traffic for both recruiting and fundraising.

As a result, Jones concluded that Cornell's business contacts with Pennsylvania "are not isolated contacts," and that "the exercise of general personal jurisdiction in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice."

In the suit, Duchesneau blames both Cornell and the maker of a gymnastics apparatus for his paralyzing injury.

The suit says Duchesneau joined a gymnastics club whose members were allowed to use the university's gymnastics facilities without any supervision.

In October 2006, the suit says, Duchesneau attempted to perform a backflip on a TumblTrak gymnastic tumbling apparatus — a trampoline-like device in the shape of a narrow rectangle that is used for training in tumbling techniques.

The suit accuses the university of negligence and alleges that it "had no gymnastic instructors, trainers, supervisors, spotters, and/or coaches present."

The suit also alleges that Michigan-based TumblTrak is both negligent and liable under strict products liability laws for marketing an unreasonably dangerous device that failed to carry proper warnings about its use.