PA Supreme Court Holds Requiring Consent to Personal Jurisdiction to Do Business in PA Violates Due

Barry S. Alexander and Peter Moomjian published a client alert, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Holds that Requiring Consent to Personal Jurisdiction in Order to Do Business in Pennsylvania Violates Due Process.”

In a December 22, 2021 decision that will have far-reaching effects, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in Robert Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company that Pennsylvania’s consent-by-registration statutory framework is unconstitutional, and thus could not provide a basis for finding personal jurisdiction. The Court noted: “Our statutory scheme of conditioning the privilege of doing business in the Commonwealth on the submission of the foreign corporation to general jurisdiction in Pennsylvania courts strips foreign corporations of the due process safeguards guaranteed in Goodyear and Daimler.”