Daimler AG v. Bauman
United States Supreme Court
571 U.S. 117 (2014)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Bauman and other residents of Argentina (plaintiffs) brought suit against DaimlerChrysler AG (Daimler) (defendant) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. They alleged that Mercedes-Benz Argentina (MBA), a Daimler subsidiary, collaborated with Argentinian forces to kidnap, torture, and kill MBA workers during an Argentinian war. These workers were the plaintiffs or persons closely related to the plaintiffs. Daimler was a German company. MBA’s alleged actions took part solely outside the United States. The plaintiffs based their claim of the district court’s jurisdiction on Daimler’s subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA), which was incorporated in Delaware and had its principal place of business in New Jersey. MBUSA distributed Daimler cars to all 50 states and had various facilities and offices in California. Daimler filed a motion to dismiss the claims based on lack of personal jurisdiction. The district court granted the motion. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed and later reversed. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Ginsburg, J.)
Concurrence (Sotomayor, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 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.
