Bryant v. Finnish National Airline

22 A.D.2d 16, 253 N.Y.S.2d 215, 1964 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3006
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedOctober 22, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 22 A.D.2d 16 (Bryant v. Finnish National Airline) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryant v. Finnish National Airline, 22 A.D.2d 16, 253 N.Y.S.2d 215, 1964 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3006 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinions

Stevens, J.

Plaintiff instituted action to recover damages for personal injuries received October 12, 1962, at Orly Airport, Paris, France, which were allegedly caused by the negligence of the defendant. Defendant moved for an order pursuant to CPLR 3211 (subd. [a], par. 8) to dismiss the complaint on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction over the person of defendant. By order entered February 14, 1964, the motion was denied and defendant appeals therefrom.

The facts are relatively simple. Plaintiff, an air hostess in the employ of Trans World Airlines (TWA) claims that she was knocked down and injured by a baggage cart ££ blown and thrown forcibly ’ ’ against her caused by an excessive air blast of one of defendant’s aircraft which was proceeding on Ramp Area Parking Spot D. 2, at the airfield. Plaintiff asserts she was legally standing on Ramp Area Parking Spot D. 4. There is no claim that defendant’s plane was illegally on Spot D. 2, nor any claim that defendant was responsible for the position of the cart.

Plaintiff served a summons and complaint in New York upon one Pentti Rosenberg, the agency and interline manager of Finnair (Aero O/Y), a foreign corporation, sued herein as Finnish National Airline (herein Finnair). The question to be resolved is whether jurisdiction of the defendant was obtained as a result of such service.

CPLR 301 provides: “A court may exercise such jurisdiction over persons, property, or status as might have been exercised heretofore.” The words " as might have been exercised heretofore” “permits the courts to develop prior con[18]*18cepts used in New York without the limitations of statutory-language.” (1 Weinstein-Korn-Miller, N. Y. Civ. Prac., par. 301.10.) “ Exercise of judicial power by the state through its courts requires the satisfaction of requirements which fall under three heads: subject matter, basis, and service. * * * Defects in connection with the second and third [i.e., basis and service] are reached by objections based upon ‘ lack of jurisdiction of the person of the defendant ’ (CPLR 3211 (a) (8) or analag’ous objections to jurisdiction in in rein or quasi in rem actions (CPLR 3211 (a) (9)).” (1 Weinstein-Korn-Miller, N. Y. Civ. Prac., par. 301.01.)

Under section 224 of the General Corporation Law (now Business Corporation Law, § 1314, subd. [a]), “ [a]n action against a foreign corporation may be maintained by a resident of the state * * * for any cause of action.” Plaintiff, a New York resident, claims as her basis for arguing that the courts acquired jurisdiction of the defendant, that defendant is doing business in the State and service was made in the prescribed manner.

Personal service upon a foreign corporation shall be made by delivering the summons ‘ to an officer, director, managing or general agent, or cashier or assistant cashier or to any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service ” (CPLR 311, subd. 1). “A statute which points out how personal service of process may be made upon a defendant reasonably seems to be considering a case where a litigant can be made a defendant legally in our courts ” (Dollar Co. v. Canadian Car & Foundry Co., 220 N. Y. 270, 275).

The broad general rule laid down in the past was that to justify service of process upon a foreign corporation it must be shown that such corporation does a substantial part of its main business in the State (Holzer v. Dodge Bros., 233 N. Y. 216, 221) or that the foreign “ corporation transacts, with a fair measure of continuity and regularity, a reasonable amount of its business within this Commonwealth ’ ’ (Brocia v. Franklin Plan Corp., 235 App. Div. 421, 422). Now we speak of “ systematic, regular and permanent ’ activities of the foreign corporation (Joseph v. Litke, 13 A D 2d 736, 737). As Mr. Justice Valente pointed out: “ The trend in the decisions of the United States Supreme Court * * * has been toward expanding the area in which a State may exercise jurisdiction over a foreign corporation. * * * In International Shoe [International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310] the flexible standard adopted by the court for in personam jurisdiction over a foreign corporation was whether the corporation had [19]*19certain minimum contacts ’ with the State such that the maintenance of the suit did not offend ‘ traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice’.” (Simonson v. International Bank, 16 A D 2d 55, 57, affd. 14 N Y 2d 281.) But “ [t]he International Shoe case * * * merely developed the doctrine that a State may extend the jurisdiction of its courts to encompass actions against a nonresident with respect to matters arising from significant acts of a nonresident in the State ” (Breitel, J., Fremay v. Modern Plastic Corp., 15 A D 2d 235, 238). In other words the privilege to conduct certain activities within a State may carry with it the obligation to respond in the courts of that State, when the obligation sought to be enforced arises out of or is connected with the activities conducted within the State. (International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra.)

The accident in the case before us did not arise from any “significant act” done by defendant within the State. We must therefore resolve whether there is presence of the defendant by reason of its doing business here, or the existence of such minimum contacts ‘ ‘ that maintenance of the suit would not offend ‘ traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice ’ ” (Matter of La Belle Creole Int. v. Attorney-General, 10 N Y 2d 192, 197, citing cases). “ Each case must be decided on its own facts having in mind the nature of the action or proceeding involved ” (ibid., p. 197).

The defendant is a foreign corporation organized under the laws of Finland, with its principal operating base, its head executive and administrative offices located in Helsinki, Finland, and is not registered in the United States. None of its stockholders, directors or officers are citizens or residents of the United States and defendant has not qualified to do business in the State of New York. All of Finnair’s flights begin and end outside of the United States. It operates no aircraft within the United States and, according to Rosenberg, the office in New York does not sell tickets even for its own flights and receives no payment of fares for defendant’s flights at its New York office. Defendant maintains a one-and-a-half room office at 10 East 40th Street, New York, staffed with three full-time and four part-time employees, none of whom is an officer or director of defendant. Its principal function is to receive from international air carriers or travel agencies reservations for travel on Finnair in Europe which it transmits to defendant’s space control office in Europe. Upon occasion the New York office will transmit information concerning a reservation from the international air carrier or travel agency to defendant’s [20]*20space control office in Europe and relay the confirmation or reply, when received, to such airline or agency. The New York office does some information and publicity work for defendant, and places a certain amount of advertising regarding Finnair’s European services in connection with its publicity work.

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Bluebook (online)
22 A.D.2d 16, 253 N.Y.S.2d 215, 1964 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryant-v-finnish-national-airline-nyappdiv-1964.