Civil Practice – Personal Jurisdiction – Corporate Directors – Insufficient Contacts 

Although two of the individual defendants traveled to North Carolina as part of their work for a California-based e-cigarette manufacturer, since their unrebutted affidavits show that these visits were related to manufacturing – and not marketing – concerns, the plaintiff-state has failed to show that the individual defendants have the minimum contacts with North Carolina that would be required for this court to exercise jurisdiction over them in this case accusing them of marketing e-cigarettes to children. 

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

After settling with a California-based e-cigarette manufacturer for targeting children, the state filed an unverified complaint against five of the manufacturer’s officers and directors. The state has failed to offer any evidence to rebut the defendants’ affidavits disclaiming any case-related connection to North Carolina. 

State ex rel. Stein v. Bowen (Lawyers Weekly No. 020-064-22, 24 pp.) (Adam Conrad, J.) Swain Wood, Brian Rabinovitz, Jessica Vance Sutton, Sripriya Narasimhan and Kevin Anderson for plaintiff; Dixie Wells, Scottie Forbes Lee, Eugene Illovsky, Kevin Calia, James Kramer, Lauren Seaton, Kevin Askew, Sunny Hwang, Michael Guzman, Mark Hansen, David Schwarz and Derek Reinbold for defendants. 2022 NCBC 64