Online University Not Subject to Student’s Suit in Massachusetts

The Alabama-based United States Sports Academy Inc. can’t be sued in Massachusetts based on a former student’s unilateral access to its interactive website and his email communications with it while living in Massachusetts, the First Circuit said Wednesday.

The case “requires us to explore the frontiers of personal jurisdiction in the internet age,” Judge Bruce M. Selya said for the panel, which included retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and Judge William J. Kayatta Jr.

Kuan Chen alleged the university changed the requirements for his doctoral degree and effectively prevented him from completing it, according to the court. He lived in Alabama, with two stints out of state, for the first two years of his program, he said. Then he allegedly moved to Massachusetts.

USSA eventually locked him out of his account, told him he had to re-enroll, and told him by email that his modified degree requirements no longer applied, he alleged.

The lower court dismissed Chen’s case for lack of personal jurisdiction.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed. General, or all-purpose, jurisdiction doesn’t apply, Selya said.

USSA’s informational website doesn’t subject it to specific, or case-linked, jurisdiction in Massachusetts, he said.

But its interactive online learning platform, which Chen allegedly used in Massachusetts, “presents a closer question,” he said.

Chen, however, “has failed to show that USSA deliberately used its online learning platform (or any other component of its online presence) to target him while he was in Massachusetts,” Selya said. “Nor is there any evidence that USSA’s maintenance of an online learning platform resulted in its knowing receipt of significant tuition dollars from Chen while he was billeted in Massachusetts.”

Only Chen’s unilateral activities link USSA to the state, Selya said. “Consequently, there is no principled way we can conclude that USSA purposefully availed itself of the privilege of doing business in Massachusetts when dealing with Chen.”

Helinski Law Offices represented Chen. Litchfield Cavo LLP represented USSA.

The case is Chen v. U.S. Sports Acad. Inc., 1st Cir., No. 19-1382, 4/15/20.