Burdick v. The Superior Court Of Orange County

Facts

John Sanderson and George Taylor (Ps) sued Douglas Burdick (D), an Illinois resident, for defamation and other intentional torts, based on an allegedly defamatory posting made by D on his personal Facebook page while he was in Illinois. The court denied D's motion to quash service of summons for lack of personal jurisdiction, and D has challenged that ruling by petition for writ of mandate or prohibition. Ps verified complaint named Nerium International, LLC (Nerium International), Nerium Biotechnology, Inc. (Nerium Biotechnology), Nerium SkinCare, Inc. (Nerium SkinCare), Jeff Olson, and D asserting six causes of action in (1) libel per se; (2) slander per se; (3) defamation ; (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress; (5) negligent infliction of emotional distress; and (6) invasion of privacy. Olson is the chief executive officer of Nerium International, and D is “another high-level and highly compensated representative of Nerium International and is the company's Corporate Consultant.” All the Ds are involved in the multi-level marketing of NeriumAD, a skincare product. Ds maintain a website BareFacedTruth.com, which “discusses science and skincare.” Ps began to question the science behind NeriumAD and published blog entries questioning its safety and efficacy and criticizing D's multilevel marketing organization. Ds engaged in a campaign of harassment and defamation against Ps to destroy their reputations using false and misleading information.” Olson conducted a recorded teleconference aired to salespeople (called “Brand Partners”), in which he referred to Ps as “blatant, jerk liars” (boldface omitted) and stated, “wait till you see what we have heading your way. It's-actually, I hate to say this, but I'm going to really enjoy the day we put it out there, quite honestly” (boldface & italics omitted). Olson recorded and published a video recording in which he stated that an investigation had “uncovered the fact that the blogger has had ‘multiple domestic violence issues.’” D posted on his Facebook page an announcement that “more scandalous information would be revealed regarding the ‘Blogging Scorpions.’” The Facebook posting announcement stated that within a short period of time, new information would be posted on “‘why he uses multiple social security numbers and ‘how many times he has been charged with domestic violence.’” Burdick posted those statements on Facebook “in his capacity as Corporate Consultant for Nerium International” and a person reading those statements would reasonably understand they referred to either P. Ps sued Ds and D moved quash service of summons. D declared he is an independent contractor for Paradiselife, Inc., an Illinois corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois, through which he provides consulting services to Nerium International. D has never lived in California; maintained an office or been employed in California; had a bank account, safe deposit box, or mailing address in California; owned or leased real property in California; had employees in California; been a party to a contract with a person or entity in California; or held any licenses or certifications issued by any governmental agency or unit in California. D declared he posted and later removed the allegedly defamatory Facebook posting from his personal Facebook page while he was in the State of Illinois. The court denied the motion to quash. It concluded he was subject to personal jurisdiction under the “‘effects’” test of Calder v. Jones. D filed a petition for peremptory writ of mandate/prohibition. The appeals court denied the writ but the California Supreme Court granted D's petition for review and transferred the matter to this court with directions to vacate the order denying mandate and to issue an order to show cause why the relief sought in Burdick's writ petition should not be granted in light of Walden v. Fiore.

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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