M & K Welding, Inc. v. Leasing Partners, LLC

COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to monitor what Judge John Brown, writing for us, termed “the heart of a federal court’s ability to practice its trade, namely personal jurisdiction.” Hugel v. McNeil, 886 F.2d 1, 2 (1st Cir.1989). It is also the heart of a state court’s legitimization, and in this case it is New Hampshire law that governs. In this case, the district court vacated a default judgment for appellant for lack of personal jurisdiction because of defective service of process. Having carefully examined the law and the facts, we conclude that the jurisdictional…