Nomadic Nerve Center

Mike Nomad (right) would have been at home in Forever Living Products, Int’l, LLC v. AV Europe GMBH, No. 05-20-00558-CV (July 30, 2021), a personal-jurisdiction appeal in which the record failed to show where the defendant corporation was based. The Fifth Court found that the plaintiff’s pleading asserted general jurisdiction over the defendant; the defendant sought to negate that basis for jurisdiction with affidavits about the location of its “nerve center.” The Court found that while the defendant had substantial connections to Germany at other points in time, in the relevant months leading up to the filing of suit its evidence was legally insufficient to negate general jurisdiction:

“AV Europe’s own evidence shows that its managing director has lived in Texas full-time since July 2018. It also shows that since June 2018 AV Europe ‘has been winding down,” which implies some level of activity, and that its activities have included at least the return of unsold products to HW&B. We see no evidence showing the location from which Hardy [the directpr] or any other AV Europe officer (if any) controlled these activities. We therefore conclude that the evidence was legally insufficient to show that AV Europe’s nerve center was outside of Texas from June 2018 until the filing of suit in January 2019.”