── Putnam v. EPR Properties ──
Court: Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Date: April 28, 2026
Category: General
United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 25-1857
ELIZABETH PUTNAM; CALE PUTNAM,
Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
EPR PROPERTIES; PREMIER PARKS, LLC,
Defendants, Appellees.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
[Hon. Margaret R. Guzman, U.S. District Judge]
Before
Aframe, Howard, and Dunlap,
Circuit Judges.
Benjamin R. Zimmermann, with whom Stacey L. Pietrowicz, Sarah
Yun, and Sugarman & Sugarman, P.C., were on brief, for appellants.
Peter L. Bosse, with whom Karli J. Grant and Boyle Shaughnessy
Law P.C. were on brief, for appellee EPR Properties.
William J. Brennan, with whom Kennedys CMK LLP was on brief,
for appellee Premier Parks, LLC.
April 28, 2026
DUNLAP, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-Appellants Elizabeth
and Cale Putnam ("Plaintiffs") are bereaved parents whose
five-year old son, Anthony, died after an unsecured Murphy bed
fell on him in their room at the Hotel Valcartier in Québec,
Canada, where the family was vacationing. Seeking redress for the
alleged wrongful death of their son, Plaintiffs sued
Defendants-Appellees Premier Parks, LLC ("Premier") and EPR
Properties ("EPR") (together, "Defendants"), who they
believed -- based on public information -- operated and owned the
Hotel Valcartier, respectively. Premier and EPR each moved to
dismiss Plaintiffs' suit for lack of personal jurisdiction, based
on sworn statements denying that Premier or EPR owned, operated,
advertised, or booked rooms for the Hotel Valcartier. Despite
Plaintiffs' submission of documents linking Defendants to the
ownership and management of the Hotel Valcartier, the district
court dismissed Plaintiffs' complaint with prejudice and denied
Plaintiffs any jurisdictional discovery. Following our review of
the record on appeal, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
I.
At all relevant times, Plaintiffs were citizens of
Massachusetts. Premier is a limited liability company that
operates amusement and water parks in several states, not including
Massachusetts. Incorporated in Delaware, Premier has its
- 2 -
headquarters in Oklahoma. EPR is a real estate investment trust
incorporated in Maryland and headquartered in Missouri.
From 2022 to 2024, Elizabeth Putnam saw advertisements
and content related to the Ice Hotel on the Hotel Valcartier
property in Québec, Canada. Sometime in late 2022 or early 2023,
she received an issue of Yankee Magazine -- a publication
targeting New England audiences -- that included an article
featuring the Ice Hotel. In October 2022, she sent an email to
[email protected] inquiring about when and how she could book a
room at the Ice Hotel. In April 2023, she booked a room at the
Ice Hotel for January 14, 2024, via valcartier.com. The booking
also included a room at the Hotel Valcartier on the same night so
Plaintiffs could shower and store their luggage. The hotel
emailed Elizabeth Putnam a receipt that included her Massachusetts
mailing address. Thereafter, Elizabeth began receiving regular
marketing emails from the hotel. She also revised her hotel
reservation