The world’s largest car rental brand, The Hertz Corporation, has won a favourable ruling from the US Supreme Court in the hotly debated case of Hertz vs. Friend. The case revolved around a lawsuit which brought into question how the principal place of business for a national corporation could be defined by the court.

The hire car giant has argued that the headquarters of a corporation are its epicentre and therefore should be classified as the primary place of business. This position was upheld by the Supreme Court who implemented what they termed a nerve centre test. Such a test sees any corporate ‘nerve centre’ defined as the headquarters and means that cases before the court would be considered on a nationwide level based on the main offices overseeing national operations. Effectively this means that the federal court will adjudicate in lawsuit cases rather than a state court.

The decision follows a class action lawsuit in the state of California which was initially deferred to the local state court, a move which has since been overturned.

Hertz welcomed the opinion of the Supreme Court and claimed it held landmark significance for multi-states businesses, offering a common-sense solution to where major litigation would take place. The official Opinion was helped by the Business Roundtable, American Trucking Association and the Chamber of Commerce all throwing their weight behind the Hertz bid.

Hertz is the world’s leading general car use brand with over 8,000 locations across 146 countries worldwide.