Scott Sutton, et al. v. Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group, LTD., et al.

In 2004, Plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Defendants had engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy in the State of Tennessee. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss citing two defenses: lack of personal jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. The trial court granted the motion for failure to state a claim but explicitly declined to rule on the jurisdictional question. Defendants have not
waived their personal jurisdiction defense. On appeal, Defendants ask that we consider the jurisdictional question only if we first find for Plaintiff on the substantive issue. Because we find that jurisdiction is a prerequisite of an adjudication on the merits, we vacate the trial court’s order of dismissal, and remand to the trial court for consideration of Defendants’ personal jurisdiction
defense.