Personal Jurisdiction
Treaty Jurisdiction
Montreal Convention
International Convention
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York No. 20-cv-2818
Appellant UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Inc. was sued in the Southern District of New York and filed a third-party complaint against Appellee EVA Airways Corporation, seeking indemnification and contribution. The district court granted EVA’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. UPS now appeals, arguing that EVA was subject to specific personal jurisdiction based on both New York’s long-arm statute and the Montreal Convention. We hold that UPS has failed to allege the in-state injury required for specific jurisdiction in New York, that the Montreal Convention does not confer personal jurisdiction, and that the record does not establish that EVA consented to personal jurisdiction in light of the Convention or its contract with UPS. Accordingly, we AFFIRM.
The Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty which entered into force in 2003, governs claims arising out of the international transportation of persons, baggage, and cargo by air.1 The treaty includes jurisdictional articles providing where such claims can be brought. This appeal presents a question of first impression: whether the Montreal Convention confers personal jurisdiction.
1 Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, May 28, 1999, T.I.A.S. No. 13,038.
In particular, we must determine whether by enabling actions arising under the treaty to be brought in the courts of certain countries, the Montreal Convention provides those courts with personal jurisdiction over the parties. Consistent with our decisions interpreting the Montreal Convention’s predecessor, we conclude that it does not. The Montreal Convention’s jurisdictional provisions place a limit on when courts of the United States, as opposed to courts of other signatory nations, may exercise jurisdiction over a claim arising under the treaty. Under U.S. law, this is referred to as treaty jurisdiction, which is a form of subject-matter jurisdiction. The Montreal Convention does not, however, alter our domestic personal jurisdiction requirements, which must be independently established. Because the Montreal Convention does not confer personal jurisdiction, and because Appellant has not otherwise established a basis for personal jurisdiction over Appellee in this action, we affirm the district court’s dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction.
This case began with the shipment of 24 pallets of vitamins from Chicago to South Korea. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA insured the vitamins, and UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Inc. contracted for them to be carried by EVA Airways Corporation, an airline headquartered in Taiwan. EVA carried the shipment on non-stop flights from Chicago to Taiwan and then from Taiwan to South Korea. The vitamins allegedly arrived damaged, and this litigation ensued.
Next, we must answer whether the Montreal Convention provides a separate basis for exercising personal jurisdiction over EVA in this action. The Montreal Convention sets forth the types of claims that can be brought relating to international air carriage. It is well established that the treaty “preempts state law and provides the sole avenue for damages claims that fall within the scope of its provisions.” Cohen v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 13 F.4th 240, 246 (2d Cir. 2021). The treaty also includes jurisdictional provisions dictating where such claims can be brought. Pointing to these jurisdictional provisions, UPS argues that in enabling certain nation-states’ courts to adjudicate a claim arising under the treaty, the Montreal Convention provides those courts with personal jurisdiction over the defendant against whom the claim is brought. By this logic, UPS contends that because the treaty authorizes it to bring a third-party claim against EVA for indemnification and contribution, and because it authorizes courts in the United States to hear that third-party claim, we should interpret the Montreal Convention to establish personal jurisdiction over EVA in this action. For the reasons explained below, we hold that the Montreal Convention’s jurisdictional provisions speak only to treaty jurisdiction as a form of subject-matter jurisdiction, not personal jurisdiction. Therefore, the Montreal Convention does not confer personal jurisdiction on United States courts in actions arising under the treaty. The power to assert jurisdiction over a claim is distinct from the power to assert jurisdiction over a party, which must be separately established.
“The interpretation of a treaty, like the interpretation of a statute, begins with its text.” Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491, 506 (2008). The Montreal Convention’s primary jurisdictional provision, Article 33, provides that “an action for damages must be brought, at the option of the plaintiff, in the territory of one of the States Parties . . . before the court of” [1] the carrier’s domicile, [2] the carrier’s principal place of business, [3] the place where the contract was made, [4] the place of destination, or [5] in certain actions, a passenger’s principal and permanent residence. Montreal Convention art. 33(1)–(2). Article 33 also dictates that “questions of procedure shall be governed by the law of the court seised of the case.” Id. art. 33(4). Where one carrier (the “contracting carrier”) contracted with a party to provide air carriage and a different carrier (the “actual carrier”) performed the actual carriage, the Montreal Convention permits either carrier to implead the other in the event that it is sued. See id. art. 45 (authorizing “the defendant carrier to seek to have the remaining carrier joined in the proceedings according to the procedural requirements of the forum in which the action is brought”). A special jurisdictional provision, Article 46, applies in actions involving carriage arranged by a contracting carrier. Article 46 provides that such actions “must be brought, at the option of the plaintiff, in the territory of one of the States Parties, either before a court in which an action may be brought against the contracting carrier, as provided in Article 33, or before the court having jurisdiction at the place where the actual carrier has its domicile or its principal place of business.” Id. art. 46. In effect, Article 46 expands Article 33’s list of fora to encompass both the contracting carrier’s and actual carrier’s domicile and principal place of business.
An examination of this treaty text leads us to conclude that its jurisdictional provisions pertain to treaty jurisdiction. In the United States, federal courts have subject-matter jurisdiction over claims arising under the Montreal Convention pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331, which gives federal courts subject-matter jurisdiction over “all civil actions arising under . . . treaties of the United States.” Articles 33 and 46 operate as a limit on this treaty jurisdiction. By stating where a damages action “must be brought,” the provisions delimit which nation-states’ courts can hear a claim arising under the treaty. Specifically, the provisions dictate that for the courts of a given nation-state to have jurisdiction over a claim arising under the treaty, the nation-state must be both one of the “States Parties” to the Convention and one of the fora listed in Article 33 (or Article 46, when applicable). Therefore, in a damages action governed by the Montreal Convention, if the United States is not one of the designated fora, then courts in the United States cannot exercise treaty jurisdiction over the action.
To begin, nothing in the text of the Montreal Convention says or implies that it gives rise to personal jurisdiction—that is, a court’s power to exercise control over a particular party. While Articles 33 and 46 state that actions “must be brought” in one of the specified fora, they do not state that the courts of those fora must entertain such actions without regard for other potential barriers to jurisdiction. To the contrary, as noted above, Article 33 specifies that “questions of procedure shall be governed by the law of the court seised of the case.” Montreal Convention art. 33(4). Likewise, while Article 45 allows a defendant contracting carrier to implead an actual carrier, or vice versa, the provision explicitly states that “the procedure and effects” remain “governed by the law of the court seised of the case.” Id. art. 45. The inclusion of these clauses indicates that while the Montreal Convention permits claims arising under the treaty to be brought in particular nations, it does not guarantee plaintiffs the unconditional right to litigate in those nations’ courts. Rather, the treaty expressly leaves room for nation-states to impose their own venue, jurisdictional, or other procedural requirements. We conclude that personal jurisdiction is such a requirement.
In sum, based on our analysis of the Montreal Convention’s text and our Warsaw Convention precedent, we conclude that the Montreal Convention speaks to jurisdiction only in the treaty sense. In cases arising under the Montreal Convention, personal jurisdiction must be separately established in accordance with domestic laws and practice.
LOHIER, Circuit Judge, concurring: I join the Court’s opinion in full. I write separately to emphasize that, while UPS failed to meet its burden of showing a “meeting of the minds” in this case, Majority Op. at 23, our decision does not definitively foreclose a contract-based theory of consent to personal jurisdiction under the Montreal Convention. There may be cases in which the defendant carrier impliedly or expressly consented to personal jurisdiction in, for example, “the court of the domicile of the carrier” or “the court at the place of destination” by doing business as an international air carrier governed by the treaty. See Montreal Convention, art. 33.
(U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, July 19, 2023, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Inc. v. EVA Airways Corporation, Docket No. 21-2867)
