CCL told the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that its courts have personal jurisdiction over FCA, the successor to old Chrysler, in a case where one of its vehicles failed to protect a passenger after it rolled over in New Hampshire, in an amicus curiae brief filed on behalf of the American Association for Justice and the Massachusetts Association of Trial Lawyers. 

      The plaintiff originally filed the case in New Hampshire state court, but FCA successfully removed it to federal court and won dismissal of the case on personal jurisdiction grounds because the car had been sold in Massachusetts before it was bought used by the current owner in New Hampshire. After that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that made the ruling erroneous, permitting the case to be brought in the state where the injury occurred as long as the defendant did substantial business there. While that case was pending, the plaintiff re-filed their lawsuit in Massachusetts, where it now claims that Massachusetts is the wrong jurisdiction to exercise authority over it and that New Hampshire would have been suitable. 

       Although the CCL brief supported the plaintiff's argument that there is nothing that prevents Massachusetts from issuing a decision binding on FCA, it added a new argument that FCA is judicially estopped and constructively consented to jurisdiction by its actions pointing to Massachusetts in opposing a hearing in New Hampshire. Subsequently, at the oral argument in the case, the justices asked about this argument, showing that it was an effective issue to raise in the CCL-drafted brief.