The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month instructed Oregon’s supreme court to reconsider the state court’s exercise of jurisdiction over a Taiwanese manufacturer.  See China Terminal & Electric Corp. v. Willemsen, No. 10-1262 (U.S.; order issued 10/3/11).

In the short order, the Court granted review, vacated the Oregon opinion denying the manufacturer’s challenge to jurisdiction, and remanded the case for further consideration in light of J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro.

Readers may recall from our earlier posts that Nicastro resulted in a plurality opinion which tracked Justice O’Connor’s plurality opinion in Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court of California, 480 U.S. 102 (1987), and two other concurring in the notion that the foreign product manufacturer lacked sufficient minimum contacts to allow a New Jersey court to exercise jurisdiction over it, but concluding that because this case did not present the new and special issues arising from recent changes in commerce and communication, it was unnecessary to get into full analysis of the steam of commerce issue as it might be applied to 21st century marketing. Rather, the outcome of the case could be determined by the Court’s existing precedents, which have held that a single isolated sale, even if accompanied by the kind of sales effort indicated in the record in the case, is not sufficient.

The Oregon case arise from a fire allegedly caused by a battery charger manufactured by CTE, a Taiwanese company;  the battery charger was incorporated into a motorized wheelchair. Plaintiffs allege that the fire began in the chair, bacuase of a defect in the charger. CTE sought dismissal on the grounds the state court lacked personal jurisdiction. The trial court denied the motion, and the Oregon Supreme Court denied defendant’s petition for a writ of mandamus on the issue.

On remand, it will be interesting to see what the state court does, given what many observers see as their recent resistant approach on directions from the high Court on remands.