Extremely Urgent Question - Much appreciated to anyone who can help!

[justiceanyone]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Recently, both my wife and I were seriously injured at a well-known U.S. hotel in Barcelona, Spain

Can I sue the hotel chain in California in Federal court? 50% of the lawyers say I can; the other 50% say I can't

The ones who say I can't say there's no subject matter jurisdiction in California for an injury that happened in Spain

Can anyone shed some light here? Many thanks for being a Good Samaritan to us! God bless!

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Nope. Research the Calvo Doctrine. CA does have a statute which allows it to consider foreign actions. It is a statute of equity. There is no equity in gaining a judgment against a hotel owner in Spain, when he has no reasonable way to defend himself.

 

[LdiJ]

Nope. Research the Calvo Doctrine. CA does have a statute which allows it to consider foreign actions. It is a statute of equity. There is no equity in gaining a judgment against a hotel owner in Spain, when he has no reasonable way to defend himself.

There would also be no way to enforce a judgment made in a US court, against an entity located in another country. You'd end up having to retry the issue in the foreign court, in order to enforce any US judgment.

 

[Sloop John D]

The concern here is not subject matter jurisdiction, it's personal jurisdiction. Any attorney who told you there's a problem with subject matter jurisdiction is either mistaken or has more facts than you've provided here.

The main issue is going to be whether or not the Hotel has sufficient connections to California. You said it was a U.S. Hotel. If that's true, then it's likely at least one U.S. state has jurisdiction over the party, but whether or not that state is CA would depend on where the hotel is incorporated and how much business they do in CA. It may also depend on the facts surrounding the injury.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

The concern here is not subject matter jurisdiction, it's personal jurisdiction. Any attorney who told you there's a problem with subject matter jurisdiction is either mistaken or has more facts than you've provided here.

The main issue is going to be whether or not the Hotel has sufficient connections to California. You said it was a U.S. Hotel. If that's true, then it's likely at least one U.S. state has jurisdiction over the party, but whether or not that state is CA would depend on where the hotel is incorporated and how much business they do in CA. It may also depend on the facts surrounding the injury.

Not to disagree completely, since we do not have the facts, however, usually hotel chains internationally are different corporation.

 

[michaelperez]

In your case, if you file a case in California in a Federal Court, it needs to have a jurisdiction over the defendant. Further, if the defendant does regular business in the country where you file and is a resident of that country, you should be able to sue them if the controversy exceeds $75,000. Consult an attorney who’s particularly experienced at handling such cases because your case might require an in-depth analysis of the jurisdiction law.