Shoei Kako Co., Ltd. v. Superior Court of the State of California for the City and County of San Francisco

A motorcyclist wearing a helmet designed and manufactured by a Japanese corporation, D.S. Kogaco Company, Ltd. (Kogaco), was injured in a collision. Kogaco merged with another Japanese corporation, Shoei Kako Co., Ltd. (defendant). The motorcyclist filed suit against Shoei Kako in California and mailed the summons and complaint to Shoei Kako in Japan. The summons and complaint were written in English. An employee of Shoei Kako signed a receipt upon delivery, acknowledging that the summons and complaint had been received by Shoei Kako in Japan. Japan was a member of the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (the Hague Service Convention). Japan had objected to certain sections of the Hague Service Convention when that treaty was ratified, but Japan did not object to the section that allowed foreign litigants from member countries to send court papers by postal channels directly to persons abroad in other member countries. Shoei Kako motioned to quash the motorcyclist’s service of the summons, arguing that the mailing of initiating litigation documents was not an authorized method of service under the Hague Service Convention. Although Shoei Kako admittedly understood and communicated in English, Shoe Kako also argued that service was improper because the summons and complaint had not been translated to Japanese. The trial court denied the motion. Shoei Kako petitioned for appellate review.