Burnham v. Superior Court
United States Supreme Court
495 U.S. 604, 110 S. Ct. 2105, 109 L. Ed. 2d 631 (1990)
- Written by Alexis Tsotakos, JD
Facts
Dennis Burnham (plaintiff) and Francie Burnham were married in West Virginia. In July 1987, the couple was living in New Jersey with their two children when they decided to get divorced. The couple agreed that Francie would move to California with the children and that they would divide their property evenly in an “irreconcilable differences” divorce. However, when Francie later pressed Dennis to honor the divorce and division agreement, he did not. In January 1988, Dennis traveled to California for business and to visit his children. While there, Dennis was served with a California court summons and Francie’s divorce petition. Dennis returned to New Jersey and filed a motion in the California court to quash the summons. Dennis argued that, under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, California could not exercise personal jurisdiction over him because he lacked minimum contacts with the state. The California trial court denied the motion. The California Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that it was enough that Dennis was present in the forum and personally served with process. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Scalia, J.)
Concurrence (White, J.)
Concurrence (Brennan, J.)
Concurrence (Stevens, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 964,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 47,500 briefs, keyed to 1,006 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
- AI-generated podcast version of every brief — listen on the go, between classes, or whenever reading isn’t an option. New
Understand your casebook readings in seconds
Use our case briefs to comprehend your casebook readings faster, supplement your notes and outlines, and outshine your peers in class.
Get instant access to over 47,500+ expert-written case briefs in a searchable database keyed to 1,006 law school casebooks.
