QUESTION
Can a lawsuit be filed in Florida for a purchase made in California?
Asked on May 05th, 2016 on Contracts - Florida
More details to this question:
I purchase a Dali tapestry from a gallery in San Francisco for $110,000 and it turned out to have a fake signature. The gallery denies saying the signature was real. Can I file a suit for damages in my home state of Florida?
1 ANSWER
Probably. The question is whether the gallery has sufficient contacts with the State of Florida to allow the State to exercise jurisdiction over it (assuming that Florida's long arm jurisdiction statute provides for Florida to exercise jurisdiction to the constitutionally allowed limit, as most do). Given that the claim arises from the gallery's sale of goods to a Florida resident, that is probably enough by itself, without even considering any other Florida contacts, such as other sales, or purchases, from Florida, advertising in Florida, etc.
Answered on May 06th, 2016 at 8:01 AM