§ 36A.005.Personal Jurisdiction

A safe-harbour list, and it answers one of the mandatory grounds for refusing recognition.

A judgment may not be refused recognition for lack of personal jurisdiction where any of six things is true.

The defendant was served with process personally in the foreign country. Presence and personal service is the oldest basis of jurisdiction there is.

The defendant voluntarily appeared — other than to protect property seized or threatened with seizure, or to contest jurisdiction.

Those two carve-outs are essential. Without them a defendant would have to choose between appearing to object and being held to have submitted by objecting.

The defendant agreed before the proceeding to submit to the jurisdiction of the foreign court with respect to the subject matter. This is the forum selection clause, and it is the most common basis in commercial cases.

The defendant was domiciled in the foreign country when the proceeding was instituted, or was a business organization whose principal place of business was there or that was organized under its laws.

The defendant had a business office in the foreign country and the action arose out of business done through that office. Note both halves: an office alone does not suffice; the claim must arise from the business done there.

The defendant operated a motor vehicle or airplane in the foreign country and the action arose out of that operation.

Subsection (b) is what keeps the list from being a ceiling: it is not exclusive, and a Texas court may recognize other bases of personal jurisdiction as sufficient.

So the section works in one direction only. A judgment within the list cannot be refused on jurisdictional grounds; a judgment outside it is not thereby refused, and the court applies its own analysis.