Katz v. Umansky

92 Misc. 2d 285, 399 N.Y.S.2d 412, 1977 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2542
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 14, 1977
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 92 Misc. 2d 285 (Katz v. Umansky) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Katz v. Umansky, 92 Misc. 2d 285, 399 N.Y.S.2d 412, 1977 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2542 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1977).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Frank Composto, J.

In this medical malpractice action third-party defendant Dr. Scialabba moves to vacate the order of attachment and levy [286]*286thereunder obtained by third-party plaintiffs Paul S. Carton and Hospital for Joint Diseases.

Plaintiffs Sarah Katz and Robert Katz, both residents of New Jersey, instituted this action against defendants for medical malpractice under the following circumstances:

In September, 1968 plaintiff, Sarah Katz, was operated on by defendant third-party plaintiff, at the Hospital for Joint Diseases, located at Madison Avenue, New York City, by Paul Carton, a physician licensed to practice medicine in New York. Plaintiff Sarah Katz alleged in the original complaint that these defendants negligently caused foreign material to be left in her body which went negligently undetected.

In May, 1972 plaintiff was attended by third-party defendant Dr. Scialabba, a New Jersey resident, who had his office in New Jersey and who treated plaintiff at Muhlenberg Hospital, in New Jersey. Dr. Scialabba treated her and apparently cured the plaintiff. Thereafter plaintiff sued the original New York doctors and the Hospital for Joint Diseases. Plaintiffs did not sue Dr. Scialabba. On the eve of trial, defendant Umansky obtained an order of attachment attaching Dr. Scialabba’s malpractice insurance policy which was held by an insurance company with an office in New York State. The attachment was predicated on the ground that Dr. Scialabba was a nonresident and not amenable to process in New York. This warrant was vacated by stipulation of the parties. A second order of attachment was obtained by the present defendants third-party plaintiffs based upon the same grounds as the previous order of attachment.

Dr. Scialabba has not answered or generally appeared in this action and now makes this motion.

These facts present the classic Seider v Roth (17 NY2d 111) syndrome which provides New York plaintiffs with a procedure for obtaining jurisdiction over nonresident defendants by attaching chose in action in which the obligors were parties located in New York and defendants were the obligees. The Seider case involved attachment of an automobile liability policy insuring the defendants at a place of business of the insurer in New York State thus giving plaintiff jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant in connection with an automobile accident which occurred outside the State.

In the very recent case of Donawitz v Danek (42 NY2d 138), the Court of Appeals continued to cling to its holding in Seider v Roth (supra) but, again, by a divided court. The [287]*287majority ruling was based on the narrow ground that it would not extend the doctrine of its previous Seider ruling where the plaintiff is a nonresident. Although the court recognized the continued criticism of its previous holding, it was not willing to re-evaluate its position because of (p 142) "considerations of institutional stability and the mandate of stare decisis”.

However, one senses an uneasiness by the majority Judges in reaffirming their position in Seider v Roth. Thus, Judge Wachtler, writing for the majority, stated (p 141): "From its inception, the Seider-Simpson rule, allowing the attachment of a defendant’s liability insurer’s contractual obligation to defend and indemnify, has met with criticism and rejection (see, e.g., Supplementary Practice Commentaries, McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 7B, CPLR 5201 [Cumulative Annual Pocket Part 1976-1977]; Munichiello v Rosenberg, 410 F2d 106 [esp writings collected at p 108], affd on reh en banc 410 F2d 117, cert den 396 US 844; Javorek v Superior Ct. of Monterey County, 17 Cal 3d 629; De Rentiis v Lewis, 106 RI 240; Ricker v Lajoie, 314 F Supp 401). In addition, grave constitutional doubts were expressed concerning the application of SeiderSimpson attachments in cases where, as here, the plaintiff seeking the attachment was not a resident of New York (Minichiello v Rosenberg, 410 F2d 106, 110, affd on reh en banc 410 F2d 117, and concurring opn of Hays, J., at p 119, cert den 396 US 844, supra; Farrell v Piedmont Aviation, 411 F2d 812, 816; Vaage v Lewis, 29 AD2d 315, 318). Other courts have simply refused to extend the Seider-Simpson rule where the plaintiff was a nonresident (see, e.g., Varady v Margolis, 303 F Supp 23; Adkins v Northfield Foundry & Mach. Co., 393 F Supp 1079; but see McHugh v Paley, 63 Misc 2d 1092, allowing a Seider-Simpson attachment by a nonresident plaintiff where there exists 'special circumstances’).”

However, on June 24, 1977, 10 days after our Court of Appeals had reaffirmed its holding in Seider v Roth, in Donawitz v Danek (supra), the Supreme Court of the United States rendered its decision in Shaffer v Heitner (433 US 186) which sounded the death knell of the quasi in rem jurisdiction concept of Seider v Roth (see, also, McLaughlin, New York Trial Practice, NYLJ, Sept. 9, 1977, p 2, col 3; New York State Law Digest, No. 214, mid-June, 1977, p 1, col 2).

In that case, plaintiff, a nonresident of Delaware, filed a shareholder’s derivative action in Delaware naming as defendant a corporation, as well as former and present corporate [288]*288directors, alleging breaches of fiduciary duties by officers through antitrust violations in Oregon; no defendant was a resident of Delaware; no acts were committed in Delaware; and no stock certificates were located in Delaware. The Delaware court took jurisdiction under a quasi in rem theory. Pursuant thereto, plaintiff sequestered stock and various other corporate rights of defendants. These defendants entered a special appearance contesting sequestration on the ground that the procedures adopted did not accord them due process; that the property seized was not capable of attachment in Delaware and they did not have sufficient contacts to sustain jurisdiction of that State’s court.

The Supreme Court held, in essence, that in the instant quasi in rem action, the property now serving as the basis for State-court jurisdiction is completely unrelated to plaintiffs cause of action, the presence of the property alone, absent other ties among the defendants, the State, and the litigation, would not support the State’s jurisdiction. The court further held that Delaware’s assertion of jurisdiction over defendants, based solely as it is on the statutory presence of defendants’ property in Delaware, violates the due process clause which does not contemplate that a State may make a binding judgment against an individual or corporate defendant with which the State has no contacts, ties, or relations. The court also found the defendants’ holdings in the corporation, which are not the subject matter of this litigation and are unrelated to the underlying cause of action, do not provide contacts with Delaware sufficient to support jurisdiction of that State’s courts over defendants. The court concluded that the standard for determining whether an exercise of jurisdiction over the interest of persons is consistent with the due process clause lies in the minimum contacts standard elucidated in International Shoe Co. v Washington (326 US 310).

Of equal significance is the fact that the Supreme Court chose to restrict, almost to the point of overruling, Harris v Balk (198 US 215), the cornerstone for the Seider holding. The

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 Misc. 2d 285, 399 N.Y.S.2d 412, 1977 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/katz-v-umansky-nysupct-1977.