DISPUTE DIDN’T BELONG IN NEW YORK COUNTY
In M.O. v. M. Construction, after a New York County Civil Court judge dismissed the case because the court did not have the requisite jurisdiction over the dispute (pursuant to the state’s “long-arm statute”), an appeal followed.
And the Appellate Term, First Department, agreed that the plaintiff failed to show why these New Jersey based defendants, and how the underlying dispute (which had to do with renovations to a New Jersey residential property), had anything to do with New York County. While the parties’ contract may have been signed here, the AT1 didn’t think that provided a sufficient connection or nexus; particularly since the contract wasn’t negotiated in the New York County area.
While there may have been evidence that the defendants had an office in Syracuse, New York, that still wasn’t enough to trigger the Civil Court’s jurisdiction over the dispute.
Bet the defendants received that with open arms ….
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DECISION