New York’s Second Department changes 100 years of personal jurisdiction case law.

This case involved claims against Ford and Goodyear arising out of an allegedly defective Ford Explorer and Goodyear tire that malfunctioned, causing the death of several of the vehicle’s occupants. The car was registered in New York to a New York resident, but the accident happened in Virginia while being driven back to New York. Ford and Goodyear argued that there was no personal jurisdiction against them in New York because the tire and car were not originally sold or manufactured in New York. They also argued that there was no general personal jurisdiction via their registration to do business in New York and appointment of an agent for service of process. Ever since the Court of Appeal’s decision in Bagdon in 1916, registration to do business has been recognized as a valid basis for general personal jurisdiction. The Second Department overruled Bagdon based on the recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Daimler, where the Court found general personal jurisdiction only where the defendant was essentially at home, which is limited to the defendant’s place of incorporation and principal place of business. In a lengthy analysis, the Second Department says that the rationale behind the older consent-by-registration cases are no longer valid (older personal jurisdiction cases relied heavily on physical presence in the state, which the court found archaic). The Second Department read Daimler as limiting general personal jurisdiction to the essentially at-home standard.

Marshall Dennehey represents a non-party appellant, a garage in Queens that allegedly serviced the vehicle and tire before the accident. We are appealing the decision on the basis that Daimler specifically stated that it was not considering jurisdiction via registration, which should remain valid under existing U.S. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases.

^{Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019}

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