RICHARD F. BOULWARE, II, District Judge.
Before the Court is Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 19).
The Petition for Removal in this action was filed December 20, 2018. ECF No. 1. The instant Motion to Dismiss was filed on February 6, 2019. ECF No. 19. A hearing on the motion was vacated on August 1, 2019 and the Court took the instant motion, as well as others, under submission. ECF No. 134.
Plaintiff Steven Mark Hayden filed his complaint in the Eight Judicial District court of Clark County, Nevada on November 7, 2018. Ex. at 5, ECF No. 1-1. Plaintiff's complaint listed five causes of action, including abuse of process, intentional interference in contractual business relations, assault, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy. ECF No. 1-1 at 8-11. The Defendants named in the action were the Commercial Litigation Docket (CLD) (an unincorporated association), Bishop Colvin Johnson and Kent LLC, Western Steel Inc. (an Alabama corporation), Maynard, Cooper, and Gale P.C., William B. Cashion, Fred Campbell, James P. Naftel, John D. Bethay III, Gerald D. Colvin, James L Goyer III, Starr T. Drum, Mike E. Hale, Dianna Hale, Raymond Rogers, Jacqueline Rodgers, Amanda Roy, Joyce White Vance, Patrick E. Kennedy, and Edward Adams.
Plaintiff alleged in his state court complaint that Defendants were involved in a scheme in which the CLD would assign cases to Defendants who would agree to take bribes either directly or through their spouses, that Defendants retaliated against Plaintiff for attempting to "shut down" the CLD, by "seizing" his wife, conspiring to control the assets of the Nevada Trust, of which Plaintiff was a trustee, and conspiring to seize Plaintiff's Medicare income from Nevada without filing garnishment or collection procedures as required by law. ECF No. 1-1 at 3-4.
The United States of America petitioned to remove the case from the Eighth Judicial District Court to this Court on December 20, 2018 on the grounds that the state court complaint named an employee of the US Attorney's Office. ECF No. 1 at 2. The remaining Alabama Judicial Defendants filed the instant Motion to Dismiss on February 6, 2019. ECF No. 19. They are Julia Weller, Anne Marie Adams, and Sandra Hall Turner. They move to dismiss Plaintiff's claims against them for lack of personal jurisdiction and absolute immunity.
A plaintiff bears the burden of establishing personal jurisdiction.
To establish that personal jurisdiction over a defendant is proper, a plaintiff must show (1) that the forum state's long-arm statute confers personal jurisdiction and (2) that the exercise of jurisdiction comports with the constitutional principles of due process.
Because the question of personal jurisdiction "goes to the court's power to exercise control over the parties," the Court will resolve this issue before reaching the issue of absolute immunity.
Plaintiff's state law complaint asserts Defendants "conspired to control" assets in Nevada over which Plaintiff was trustee and conspired to seize Plaintiff's Medicare income from Nevada. ECF No. 1-1 at 8. Plaintiff's response to the Motion to Dismiss reiterates these conclusory statements and cites to the complaint.
For the reasons stated above,