Halyard Health, Inc. v. Kimberly-Clark Corp.
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After Kimberly-Clark spun off its healthcare division to create a new Delaware company called Halyward Health, Halyward filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking a declaratory judgment that it did not have to provide indemnity for the punitive damages awarded in a recently filed class action concerning surgical gowns sold by Kimberly-Clark.
The Court of Appeal held that the indemnification dispute was not sufficiently related to California for courts of the state to exercise personal jurisdiction over Kimberly-Clark. In this case, the litigation did not arise out of or relate to Kimberly-Clark's medical gown sales and marketing in California. Furthermore, the distribution agreement was not a "California-directed" contract conferring personal jurisdiction. Therefore, the court affirmed the trial court's grant of Kimberly-Clark's motion to quash the service of summons for lack of personal jurisdiction.
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