Page:Jackson v FIE Corp.pdf/2

No. 07-30936 demonstrated jurisdiction. For the reasons stated below, we VACATE and REMAN D.

On May 28, 1992, Arnold Jackson ("Jackson") was injured when he dropped a Titan .25 caliber semi—automatic pistol (the "pistol"), causing it to discharge unexpectedly. Jackson was rendered a quadriplegic and eventually died from his injuries. Plaintiffs—Appellants Linda Jackson, J ackson’s wife, and heir son Brian (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed suit on May 25, 1993, in Louisiana state court. Included as defendants were several American companies and three Italian companies: Fratelli Tanfoglio, S.n.c. ("Fratelli Tanfoglio"), Giuseppe Tanfoglio, S.p.a., and Tanfoglio Giuseppe, S.r.l. (collectively, the "Tanfoglio entities"). The American defendants removed the case to federal district court, where Plaintiffs obtained a default judgment of approximately $11 million against the Tanfoglio entities on December 18, 1998. In entering the judgment, the district court ruled that the Tanfoglio entities manufactured the pistol which contained a product defect, namely, that the firing pin was too long, which made it discharge too easily. The district court entered a final judgment against the Tanfoglio entities and closed the case.

Almost two years later, on October 27, 2000, Fratelli Tanfoglio filed a motion to vacate the default judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(4), which provides that a court may relieve a party from a final judgment if the judgment is void. Fratelli Tanfoglio argued that the judgment was void because the district court lacked personal jurisdiction over it. In support of its claim, Fratelli Tanfoglio asserted that it did not make the pistol that injured Jackson, and that there was nothing connecting Fratelli Tanfoglio with Louisiana. On May 25, 2001, the district court denied the motion, holding that the jurisdictional facts—that Fratelli Tanfoglio had made the pistol—had been conclusively established by the default judgment. 2