Memorandum Opinion - the Circuit Court for Baltimore City

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e said to be the focal point of the harm; and (3) the defendantexpressly aimed his tortious conduct at the forum, such that theforum can be said to be the focal point of the tortious activity.Id. at 280, quoting Carefirst of Maryland, Inc., 334 F.3d at 398 n.7. The Court emphasizedthat under the effects test, the plaintiff must “establish that the defendant expressly aimed histortious conduct at the forum, such that the forum can be said to be the focal point of thetortious activity.” Id. (emphasis in original) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).Here, as in Revell and Consulting Engineers, the emails and the website were notabout Maryland, but rather Strudwick’s business in Costa Rica. The alleged defamatorystatements concerned activities in Costa Rica, not Maryland. The alleged wrongdoing ofRothstein and RRA’s was not “expressly aimed” towards Maryland. Calder, 465 U.S. at784-85. To the contrary, it was aimed toward Costa Rica. Although Rothstein and RRAknew Strudwick lived in Maryland and the complaint posted on the internet stated that helived in Maryland, Maryland was not the “focal point” of the wrongful acts or of the harmsuffered. The audience was not Maryland. 24It is not accidental that plaintiffs’ complaint alleged only that the email was sent to“WIN students, including those that invested with Whitney in the Hotel,” and that plaintiffsonly mentioned that some of those students resided in Maryland in response to the motionto dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. “[A] plaintiff's residence in the forum, and24Plaintiffs state in their Opposition Memorandum that the purpose of the conduct was aimed“in particular, at intentionally interfering with Barry Strudwick’s contracts and business dealings inhis home state, Maryland,” but there are no factual allegations in the complaint in support of thatstatement. In fact, as Rothstein and RAA point out, Strudwick's argument that the harm was directedtoward Maryland is weakened by his claim that he has appeared on both local and national mediaand has been frequently cited in such diverse publications as CNBC, “The Investment News,” as wellas the “Nikkei Times” in Tokyo, Japan.30
suffering of harm there, will not alone support jurisdiction under Calder.” Revell, 317 F. 3dat 473 quoting Reynolds v. International Amateur Athletic Federation, 23 F.3d 1110, 1120(6th Cir. 1994). 25Here, neither the sources relied upon or the activities described in thewebsite and the emails connect with Maryland. The fact that some of the WIN students whoreceived the email reside in Maryland is not sufficient to subject these defendants to personaljurisdiction in Maryland. See id. at 473-74 (“the sources relied upon and activities describedin an allegedly defamatory publication should in some way connect with the forum if Calderis to be invoked.”). 2625In Reynolds the Court held that there was no personal jurisdiction over a London-basedassociation for publication of a press release concerning the Ohio resident plaintiff because theallegedly defamatory press release dealt with the plaintiff's activities in Monaco, not Ohio; the sourceof the report was a urine sample taken in Monaco and analyzed in Paris; and the "focal point" of therelease was not Ohio. Plaintiff’s claim that the alleged defamation had cost him endorsementcontracts in Ohio was not sufficient to subject the defendant to personal jurisdiction in Ohio.There was no evidence that the defendants knew of the endorsement contracts or of theirOhio origin. Here Rothstein and RRA knew that Strudwick was in Maryland, and that the WINstudents who received the emails resided in Maryland but those facts are not sufficient to alter thekey fact that all the harm concerned business interests in Costa Rica.26See also Remick v. Manfredy, 238 F.3d 248, 257 (3d Cir. 2001) (allegations that the allegedthe defamatory letter had been distributed throughout the “boxing community” were insufficient,because” there was no assertion that Pennsylvania had a unique relationship with the boxingindustry, as distinguished from the relationship in Calder between California and the motion pictureindustry, with which the Calder plaintiff was associated.” (emphasis added); IMO Indus., Inc. v.Kiekert AG, 155 F.3d 254, 266 (3d Cir. 1998) (“The plaintiff must show that the defendant knew thatthe plaintiff would suffer the brunt of the harm caused by the tortious conduct in the forum, and pointto specific activity indicating that the defendant expressly aimed its tortious conduct at the forum.”(emphasis added)); and Young v. New Haven Advocate, 315 F. 3d 256, 262-63 (4 th Cir. 2002)(“application of Calder in the Internet context requires proof that the out-of-state defendant's Internetactivity is expressly directed at or directed to the forum state.”) all discussed in Revell. Revellrejected the reasoning of the divided court in Burt v. Board of Regents of University of Nebraska,757 F.2d 242, 244-45 (10th Cir. 1985), vacated as moot, Connolly v. Burt, 475 U.S. 1063, 89 L. Ed.2d 599, 106 S. Ct. 1372 (1986), where personal jurisdiction was found to exist in Colorado over aNebraska doctor who, in response to requests from Colorado hospitals, had written unflattering andallegedly defamatory letters about the plaintiff’s activities in Nebraska.31
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Page 9 and 10: In February 2007 defendants sent em
Page 11 and 12: arm statute.” Mackey, 391 Md. at
Page 13 and 14: printout of the web page of RRA. Th
Page 15 and 16: (1958)] suggests that the activitie
Page 17 and 18: jurisdiction over RRA for its “co
Page 19 and 20: State; and (3) whether the exercise
Page 21 and 22: whether there is specific jurisdict
Page 23 and 24: tribunal less burdensome”). With
Page 25 and 26: emails marketing and soliciting bus
Page 27 and 28: v. Catacombs Press, 44 F. Supp. 2d
Page 29: shares relevant characteristics wit
Page 33 and 34: the acts are “targeted at a plain
Page 35 and 36: Relying on Freetown v. Whiteman, 93
Page 37 and 38: the requirements of the conspiracy
Page 39 and 40: Instead it states that in deciding
Page 41 and 42: Plaintiffs’ assertion that RRA ha

Memorandum Opinion - the Circuit Court for Baltimore City

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