Alison N. Martins, Individually and as Co of the Estate of John Martins v. Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC

Syllabus

The plaintiff, Alison Martins, individually and as co executrix of the Estate of John Martins, appealed from the Superior Court's entry of partial final judgment in accordance with Rule 54(b) of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure and the dismissal of the action for lack of personal jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(2) in favor of the defendants, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC Bridgestone Americas, Inc. and Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC. On appeal, the plaintiff submitted that the hearing justice erred in granting the motion to dismiss by the Bridgestone defendants based on lack of personal jurisdiction. The plaintiff also argued that the hearing justice erred in denying her request to conduct jurisdictional discovery. The Supreme Court first held that the hearing justice did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of the Bridgestone defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction because nothing in the record supported the plaintiff's assertion that her claims arose out of or related to the Bridgestone defendants' contacts with Rhode Island. The Supreme Court additionally held that the hearing justice did not err in denying the plaintiff's motion to conduct jurisdictional fact discovery. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the partial final judgment of the Superior Court.