<em>Tyrrell v. BNSF Railway Company</em>: Is BNSF Being Railroaded into the Montana Court System?

“It is one thing to hold a corporation answerable for operations in the forum State, . . . quite another to expose it to suit on claims having no connection whatever to the forum State.” General jurisdiction is the form of personal jurisdiction that allows a forum state to assert judicial authority over “any and all claims” against a defendant who has sufficient, close contacts with the state—even claims that arise elsewhere. In Daimler AG v. Bauman,3 the United States Supreme Court held that a corporation must be “essentially at home” in the forum state to assert general jurisdiction. To date, the Supreme Court has only found one example of a corporation “essentially at home” outside of its place of incorporation or principal place of business. Congress’s enactment of the FELA does not make railroad companies doing business in Montana another example.

Thus, the due process of a railroad corporation should be assessed in the same manner as that of any other corporation by applying the Daimler standard.