Goodell DeVries lawyers Craig S. Brodsky and Michael J. Houde obtained dismissal on behalf of a Pennsylvania company in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City on June 20, 2025.
This case arose from a 2021 vehicle collision that took place in Delaware near the Pennsylvania border. In that incident, the plaintiff’s car was struck by a trailer attached to a truck owned and operated by the firm’s client, a Pennsylvania construction company. At the time of the collision, the plaintiff was a Delaware resident, and the driver of the client’s vehicle was a Pennsylvania resident. The client’s employee was returning to Pennsylvania, having worked in Delaware all day, and the plaintiff was on a personal trip to Pennsylvania.
Just before Maryland’s three-year statute of limitations expired, the plaintiff filed suit in Baltimore City Circuit Court on the basis that the company had formerly operated in Maryland.
Craig and Mike immediately moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. They argued (i) that their client could not be subjected to personal jurisdiction in Maryland due to a car accident that occurred in Delaware involving a Pennsylvania resident employed by a Pennsylvania corporation; and (ii) that the complete absence of the client’s connections to Maryland precluded any chance for the client to be considered “at home” in Maryland despite being a foreign corporation.
The plaintiff argued that the client’s prior history of work throughout Maryland, former license to do business in Maryland, and former resident agent in Maryland established a “continuous and systematic course of conduct” sufficient for the client to still be considered “at home” in Maryland, and therefore subject to personal jurisdiction.
Immediately after oral arguments, the presiding judge ruled in favor of Craig’s and Mike’s client, finding that there was no personal jurisdiction over the company and dismissing the case with prejudice.
Craig is a partner at Goodell DeVries, and Mike is an associate at the firm. They can be reached at csb@gdldlaw.com and mhoude@gdldlaw.com, respectively.
