Personal Jurisdiction

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger William Cowper, in his Eighteenth-Century poem “The Task,” coined the phrase “Variety’s the very spice of life.” Today, this phrase is used in many contexts; albeit not so frequently when discussing service of process under CPLR 308(4) – the subject of today’s BLOG. In our recent BLOG article: “ Primer – Personal Jurisdiction and Service of Process ” we explored various process service issues. As discussed therein, obtaining personal jurisdiction

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger In today’s BLOG, we will address the enforcement of foreign judgments (i.e., judgments obtained outside the State of New York) in New York. Simply stated, armed with a money judgment, a judgment creditor can employ numerous available procedures to assist in the collection of the outstanding judgment debt. Article 52 of the CPLR (Enforcement of Money Judgments) provides for many enforcement options. Judgments obtained in New York can be enforced imm

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber A claim for fraud requires “a material misrepresentation of a fact, knowledge of its falsity, an intent to induce reliance, justifiable reliance by the plaintiff and damages.” In First Trinity Life Ins. Co. v. Advance Funding LLC , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 03133 (1st Dept. May 22, 2025) ( here ), discussed below, knowledge of falsity ( i.e. , scienter) and reliance were the elements at issue. First Trinity concerned the assignment of lottery winnings. A form

By: Jeffrey M. Haber On April 3, 2025, the Appellate Division, First Department considered an appeal of the dismissal of a complaint involving the disputed authenticity of a painting (the “Work”) by the deceased artist Cy Twombly (“Twombly”). In Grosso v. Cy Twombly Found. , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 02007 (Apr. 03, 2025) ( here ), the Court unanimously affirmed the motion court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by the child of a parent who purchased works of art, including the Wor

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger It is axiomatic that a “plaintiff appears merely by bringing it.” Deutsche Bank Nat. Trust Co. v. Hall , 185 A.D.3d 1006, 1007 (2 nd Dep’t 2020) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Once served with process, a defendant must appear in an action to avoid a default. CPLR 320(a) , which sets forth, inter alia, the way a defendant can appear in an action, provides that “ he defendant appears by serving an answer or a notice of appearanc

By: Jeffrey M. Haber One of the many changes that the Covid 19 pandemic brought to the workplace was remote employment for employees and consultants alike. When consultants from a different state perform services for a business or entity, questions arise, for dispute resolution purposes, about whether the court can exercise personal jurisdiction over them. In Applied Healthcare Research Mgt. v. Ibrahim , 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 05734 (4th Dept. Nov. 15, 2024) ( here ), the Appella

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In Emirates Islamic Bank PJSC v. NeoPharma LLC , 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 51461(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Oct. 4, 2024) ( here ), Justice Gerald Lebovits addressed an interesting question concerning personal jurisdiction against them that caught our eye. The jurisdictional issue in Emirates Islamic Bank concerned whether personal jurisdiction over the defendants was necessary in order to enforce a foreign-country judgment through a CPLR 3213 motion. To exerci

By Jonathan H. Freiberger Today’s article relates to renewal judgments under CPLR 5014 in the face of potentially defective service of process. This BLOG has previously addressed CPLR 5014 < here =">here</a>"> . Issues involving service of process have been addressed numerous times in this BLOG. See, e.g. , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here ="

By Jonathan H. Freiberger In today’s BLOG we discuss AMK Capital Corp. v. Plotch . , a case decided on June 18, 2024, by the Appellate Division, First Department, that involves, inter alia , an interesting service of process issue. The Court in AMK Capital recognized that the appeal it was deciding is “an issue of apparent first impression – whether CPLR 308(2)’s restrictions prohibiting the inclusion of information indicating that a communication ‘is from an attorney or con

By Jonathan H. Freiberger There are two “components and constitutional predicates of personal jurisdiction.”  Keane v. Kamin , 94 N.Y.2d 263, 265 (1999). “One component involves service of process, which implicates due process requirements of notice and opportunity to be heard.” Keane , 94 N.Y.2d at 265 (citations omitted). 1 The law is clear that a “court lacks personal jurisdiction over a defendant who is not properly served with process.” Everbank v. Kelly , 203 A.D.3d 13

By: Jeffrey M. Haber The doctrine of successor jurisdiction provides that when two entities merge, the successor entity inherits the merged entity’s jurisdictional status for purposes of specific jurisdiction ( i.e. , personal jurisdiction). Thus, if the merged entity was subject to jurisdiction in a particular forum, then the successor would also be subject to the court’s jurisdiction, regardless of whether the successor entity would otherwise be subject to the court’s juris

By Jonathan H. Freiberger As previously noted in this Blog, there are two “components and constitutional predicates of personal jurisdiction.”  Keane v. Kamin , 94 N.Y.2d 263, 265 (1999). “One component involves service of process, which implicates due process requirements of notice and opportunity to be heard.”  Id. (citations omitted). Even though a defendant may be subject to the jurisdiction of the Court, dismissal may be sought “based on the claim that service was not p

By:  Jeffrey Haber Section 3211(a)(8) of the Civil Practice Law and Rule (“CPLR”) allows a party to “move for judgment dismissing one or more causes of action asserted against him on the ground that … the court has not jurisdiction of the person of the defendant.”  Whether the court has personal jurisdiction over a non-domiciliary involves a two-part inquiry: (1) the exercise of jurisdiction must be permissible under New York’s long-arm statute; and (2) the exercise of jurisd

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In today’s article, we address the question: When is an attorney authorized to act on behalf of a party? As one would expect, when the client says so, a lesson learned by the parties in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP v. Koukis , 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 01863 (1st Dept. Apr. 11, 2023) ( here ). The primary issue in Gibson Dunn was whether the default judgment entered against defendant George Koukis in July 2019 should be vacated, and the complaint dismissed as ag

By: Jeffrey M. Haber On February 14, 2023, the New York Court of Appeals decided State of New York v. Vayu, Inc. , 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 00801 (Feb. 14, 2023) ( here ). Vayu addressed what it means to purposefully avail oneself of the privilege of conducting activities within New York by transacting business in the state. In a 5-1 decision, authored by Judge Michael J. Garcia, the Court held that Vayu, acting through its chief executive officer, repeatedly projected itself into

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Obtaining jurisdiction over a corporation that is incorporated and headquartered outside of the state can be difficult. A plaintiff must plead and prove that the corporation purposefully availed itself of the resources of the state for a court to exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendant. The failure to do so will result in dismissal of the action. Under CPLR § 302(a)(1), a court can exercise specific personal jurisdiction over a non-domiciliary w

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Commercial transactions very often involve parties from different states and/or different countries. One party can be domiciled in New York, for example, while the other can be incorporated or headquartered in Delaware or London. When a dispute arises between such geographically diverse parties, questions concerning the jurisdiction of a court over the parties often get litigated. This was the situation in Kingstown Capital Management L.P. v. CPI Property

By Jonathan H. Freiberger Personal guaranties are contracts of suretyship pursuant to which “one party as surety binds himself to the second party as creditor to pay a debt contracted by a third party either immediately upon default of the third party or after attempts to effect collection from the third party have failed.”  General Phoenix Corp. v. Cabot , 300 N.Y. 87, 92 (1949).  As to when the surety’s obligation arises: hether a surety is a guarantor of payment or a guara

By Jeffrey M. Haber In Aybar v. Aybar , 2021 N.Y. Slip Op. 05393 (Oct. 7, 2021) ( here ), the New York Court of Appeals was asked to determine whether a foreign corporation that registers to do business in New York consents to the general jurisdiction of the State’s courts. As explained below, in a 5-2 decision, the Court held that registration under the Business Corporation Law (“BCL”) to do business in the State does not confer general jurisdiction over the corporation. Pro

Obtaining jurisdiction over a corporation that is incorporated and headquartered outside of the state can be difficult. A plaintiff must plead and prove that the corporation purposefully availed itself of the resources of the state for a court to exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendants. The failure to do so, as in Poms v. Dominion Diamond Corp. , Index No. 655733/2017, 2019 NY Slip Op 31364(U) (Sup. Ct. N.Y. County May 15, 2019) ( here ), will result in dismissal o