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  Amenable to Suit
(Watts v. Crawford )

Amenable to Suit
(Watts v. Crawford )

Similarly, numerous decisions of the Courts of Appeal have employed the phrase "amenable to process" and related phrases to refer to the state's authority to exercise personal jurisdiction. (See, e.g., Raynolds v. Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft (1969) 275 Cal.App.2d 997, 1001-1002 [80 Cal.Rptr. 610] [if a foreign corporation actually is doing business in California, it is amenable to service in the state]; DaSilveira v. Westphalia Separator Co. (1967) 248 Cal.App.2d 789, 790 [57 Cal.Rptr. 62] [a foreign corporation not having minimum contacts is not "doing business" within the meaning of the statute permitting service on foreign corporations, and therefore is not amenable to process and jurisdiction of the California courts]; Harry Gill Co. v. Superior Court (1965) 238 Cal.App.2d 666, 667, 670, 674-675 [48 Cal.Rptr. 93]; H. Liebes & Co. v. Erica Shoes, Inc. (1965) 237 Cal.App.2d 25, 27, 31-34 [46 Cal.Rptr. 470]; Detsch & Co. v. Calbar, Inc. (1964) 228 Cal.App.2d 556, 564, 570 [39 Cal.Rptr. 626]; Buckner v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1964) 226 Cal.App.2d 619, 623-624 [38 Cal.Rptr. 332]; Florence Nightingale School of Nursing v. Superior Court (1959) 168 Cal.App.2d 74, 84 [335 P.2d 240]; Gordon Armstrong Co. v. Superior Court (1958) 160 Cal.App.2d 211, 216-218 [325 P.2d 21]; Jeter v. Austin Trailer Equipment Co. (1953) 122 Cal.App.2d 376, 382, 386-388 [265 P.2d 130]; Martin Bros. Elec. Co. v. Superior Court (1953) 121 Cal.App.2d 790, 793 [264 P.2d 183].) fn. 11

The phrases "amenable to process" and "amenable to service" (as well as the more general phrase "amenable to suit"), in California decisions predating the Legislature's employment of the phrase "amenable to the process of [10 Cal.4th 757] the court" in former section 581a, were derived, in turn, from the use of such phrases by the United States Supreme Court in referring to the authority of a state to exercise personal jurisdiction over a party. (See, e.g., McGee v. International Life Ins. Co., supra, 355 U.S. 220, 223-224 [2 L.Ed.2d 223, 226-227] [upholding California statute providing for service on an out-of-state corporation on the basis that the corporation had entered into an insurance agreement with, and collected premiums from, a California resident, and therefore had sufficient minimum contacts rendering it amenable to suit in California]; Internat. Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, 326 U.S. 310, 311, 314, 318 [90 L.Ed. 95, 99, 100-101, 103] [the defendant's sales activities rendered it amenable to suit or other proceedings in the plaintiff's state pursuant to the due process clause of the 14th Amend.]; National Bank v. Republic of China (1955) 348 U.S. 356, 359-360 [99 L.Ed. 389, 396-397, 75 S.Ct. 423] [commenting upon the expansion of the government's amenability to suit and to judicial process]; Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert (1947) 330 U.S. 501, 506-507 [91 L.Ed. 1055, 1061-1062, 67 S.Ct. 839] [observing that the doctrine of forum non conveniens presupposes at least two forums in which the defendant is amenable to process, and furnishes criteria for the choice between them]; Milliken v. Meyer (1940) 311 U.S. 457, 463-464 [85 L.Ed. 278, 283-284, 61 S.Ct. 339, 132 A.L.R. 1357] [state had jurisdiction where pursuant to statute the defendant personally was served out of state in lieu of service by publication; citizenship, arising out of domicile in the state where the action was commenced, creates certain responsibilities, including amenability to suit therein].) Indeed, "amenability to suit" has been employed as an antonym to the notion of immunity from suit conferred upon certain entities. (See, e.g., National Bank v. Republic of China, supra, 348 U.S. 356, 359-360 [99 L.Ed. 389, 396-397]; F.H.A. v. Burr (1940) 309 U.S. 242, 245 [84 L.Ed. 724, 728-729, 60 S.Ct. 488] [a federal agency statutorily empowered to "sue or be sued" is presumed to be amenable to judicial process because the statute constituted a waiver of sovereign immunity].) fn. 12

Accordingly, it is patent that, as that phrase commonly was employed in the decisional law of this and other jurisdictions, as well as in other sources, [10 Cal.4th 758] an inquiry into whether a party was "amenable to process" would refer to an examination of whether that party was subject to being served under applicable constitutional and statutory provisions. Nothing in the several Court of Appeal decisions construing the amendment of former section 581a persuades us that the phrase "amenable to the process of the court" was intended to, or should, refer instead to a defendant's reasonable availability, as a practical matter, for service of process.
Watts v. Crawford (1995) 10 Cal.4th 743 , 42 Cal.Rptr.2d 81; 896
 

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