Northern Grain Mktg., LLC v. Greving, No. 12-2653, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 2932 (7th Cir. Feb. 18, 2014)

(a Wisconsin grain producer entered into a number of contracts under which he sold grain to an Illinois-based grain buyer; after a nine-year relationship, the buyer alleged that the producer repudiated several oral agreements, entitling the buyer to $ 1 million in damages; when the producer refused to arbitrate the dispute, the buyer filed an action in Illinois state court, seeking an order compelling the producer to arbitrate; the trial court dismissed the action on the grounds that it lacked personal jurisdiction over the producer; on appeal, the court affirmed; the producer, who lived, worked, and purchased all equipment in Wisconsin, lacked sufficient minimum contacts with the State of Illinois such that the State could—consistent with the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment—exercise personal jurisdiction over the producer; contracting with an out-of-state party could not alone establish sufficient minimum contacts; the buyer always traveled to Wisconsin to meet with the producer; indeed the producer had only set foot in Illinois once—to attend a seed corn meeting where he met the representative from the buyer, some nine years before the buyer filed its action; the producer did not purposefully avail himself of the privilege of conducting business in Illinois).