## Facts

- Hiroshi Kadota, a Japanese citizen, was driving an automobile in Arizona with Fukuo Hosogai as a passenger when the car was involved in an accident near Prescott, Arizona.
- Fukuo Hosogai died from the accident; Kadota suffered severe brain injuries and was hospitalized in Arizona.
- After hospitalization, Kadota returned to Japan to live with his family.
- Michiko Hosogai (Fukuo’s widow) filed an Arizona wrongful-death action against Kadota, alleging negligence.
- Hosogai made three separate attempts to serve Kadota:
  - Service on the Arizona Superintendent of Motor Vehicles under Arizona’s nonresident-motorists statute.
  - Personal service in Japan by a Japanese attorney, who delivered a summons along with a Japanese translation to Kadota.
  - Service in Arizona on a guardian ad litem appointed for Kadota because of his brain injury.
- Kadota challenged personal jurisdiction and moved to quash service, arguing the service efforts were defective and that service in Japan had to follow the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents (Hague Service Convention).
- The trial court rejected Kadota’s jurisdictional challenges, the case went to trial, and the jury returned a verdict for Hosogai for $225,000; judgment was entered against Kadota.
- Kadota appealed, contending the judgment was void because the superior court never obtained personal jurisdiction due to ineffective service of process.

## Issues

1. Whether the Hague Service Convention controlled service of process in Japan and displaced Arizona procedures that would otherwise allow direct personal service on Kadota in Japan by a Japanese attorney.
2. Whether service under Arizona’s nonresident-motorists statute (through the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles) was effective when the statutory mailing and filing requirements were not satisfied and when the defendant was located in Japan.
3. Whether service on Kadota’s guardian ad litem in Arizona constituted valid original service of process on Kadota, an allegedly incompetent defendant residing abroad.
4. If service was ineffective, whether the resulting judgment was void for lack of personal jurisdiction.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment because the superior court lacked personal jurisdiction over Kadota.
- The court held that the attempted personal service in Japan, even if consistent with an Arizona rule, was ineffective because service in Japan had to be accomplished through methods allowed by the Hague Service Convention as applicable between the United States and Japan.
- The court held that service under the nonresident-motorists statute was ineffective because the plaintiff did not satisfy the statute’s specific requirements (including required mailing-related filings) and, in any event, treaty requirements controlled where inconsistent.
- The court held that service on a guardian ad litem did not, by itself, constitute valid service of process on the incompetent defendant.
- Because none of the three methods resulted in valid service, the trial court never obtained personal jurisdiction, and the judgment was void.

## Legal Principles

- Once personal jurisdiction is challenged, the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing jurisdiction through valid service of process.
- A judgment entered without proper service of process (and therefore without personal jurisdiction) is void.
- Under the Supremacy Clause, a treaty governing service of process abroad controls over conflicting state procedures; where the Hague Service Convention applies, it limits the acceptable methods of service in the receiving country.
- Statutory substitute-service provisions, such as a nonresident-motorists statute, require strict satisfaction of the statute’s procedural steps; missing required mailing or filing components defeats service.
- A guardian ad litem appointed to protect an incompetent defendant’s interests is not, solely by virtue of that appointment, an agent authorized to accept original service of process for the defendant.

## Conclusion

Because the plaintiff’s three service attempts (service on the superintendent under the nonresident-motorists statute, personal service in Japan outside Hague Convention procedures, and service on a guardian ad litem) were each ineffective, the Arizona superior court lacked personal jurisdiction over Kadota, making the wrongful-death judgment void and requiring reversal.


Kadota v. Hosogai, 608 P.2d 68 (1980)