Civil Practice – Personal Jurisdiction – Corporate Layers – Charlotte School of Law

Where (1) the moving defendants have no physical presence in North Carolina; (2) their connection to North Carolina and Charlotte School of Law (CSL) is limited to their membership in a Delaware limited liability company that is an additional two corporate levels removed from the subsidiary conducting business in North Carolina; (3) plaintiffs have offered no evidence to contradict the moving defendants’ denial as to any involvement in the day-to-day management of CSL, marketing of CSL, accreditation issues at CSL, or the eligibility of CSL students to receive Title IV funds; and (4) a mention of CSL on defendant Sterling Fund Management LLC’s website is merely a brief profile one of the many companies in Sterling Fund Management’s investment portfolio, the court finds that the moving defendants have not purposefully directed activities toward North Carolina, meaning the exercise of specific jurisdiction over the moving defendants would be inconsistent with due process.

The court grants the moving defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.

Herrera v. Charlotte School of Law, LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 020-016-18, 17 pp.) (James Gale, C.J.) Gary Jackson, Hoyt Tessener, James Farrin, Christopher Bagley, Sidney Figel, Stefanie Rodriguez and Lawrence Serbin for plaintiffs; Robert Harrington, Adam

Doerr, William Roberts, Nicholas Berg and Peter L. Welsh for the moving defendants. 2018 NCBC 15