United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ____________ United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

FILED No. 22-60603 February 23, 2024 ____________ Lyle W. Cayce Glen Pace, Clerk

Plaintiff—Appellant,

versus Cirrus Design Corporation, Individually and, doing business as Cirrus Aircraft Corporation; Continental Motor Corporation; Amsafe; Arapahoe Aero,

Defendants—Appellees. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi USDC No. 2:22-CV-46 ______________________________ Before Smith, Southwick, and Higginson, Circuit Judges. Leslie H. Southwick, Circuit Judge: Glen Pace appeals the dismissal of his claims against multiple corpo- rate defendants for the personal injuries he suffered from the crash of a sin- gle-engine, general aviation airplane he was piloting. Pace filed this suit in Mississippi state court, but it was later removed to federal district court. The district court held the two Mississippi defendants were improperly joined, which allowed removal, and then dismissed the claims against the out-of- state defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction. We AFFIRM. Case: 22-60603 Document: 131-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 02/23/2024

No. 22-60603

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On November 22, 2019, Pace was piloting a Cirrus SR22T aircraft owned by Martin Aviation, LLC when it crashed in Smith County, Texas. He had no passengers. Pace’s flight began in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, con- tinued to multiple Texas stops, and was to return to Hattiesburg. The crash occurred during the aircraft’s flight between Terrell, Texas, and Gladewater, Texas, when several components of the aircraft allegedly malfunctioned. Pace, a Mississippi resident, suffered several severe injuries from the crash. Pace filed suit in a Mississippi state circuit court in November 2021. He asserted multiple claims against corporate defendants Cirrus, Continen- tal, Amsafe, and Apteryx, Inc. 1 Cirrus allegedly manufactured the aircraft and its emergency parachute. Continental is the alleged manufacturer of the aircraft’s engine. Amsafe is the alleged manufacturer of several safety fea- tures on the aircraft: seatbelts, shoulder harnesses, and inertial reels. Apteryx allegedly maintained, overhauled, rebuilt, and/or repaired the aircraft and/or its engine. None of these corporate defendants are Mississippi-based. Pace amended his complaint in January 2022 to add four claims of negligence and misrepresentation against Wade Walters, individually and do- ing business as Performance Aviation, LLC. Walters is a resident of Missis- sippi, and Performance Aviation is a Mississippi limited liability company. They owned the aircraft from February 2014 until October 2017. Walters and Performance Aviation lost possession of the aircraft in 2016 when it was seized as part of a forfeiture action against Walters. Martin Aviation pur- chased the aircraft at a court-sanctioned sale in October 2017 and remained the registered owner until the crash.

_____________________ 1 Pace named Arapahoe Aero in his complaint, but that party alleges its correct legal name is Apteryx. We will refer to “Apteryx.”