E-Mail Service to Defendant Living in Iran Deemed Valid

The Fourth Department held that service by e-mail upon the defendant in a matrimonial action was valid.  The defendant was living in Iran and the trial judge (Supreme Court, Monroe County, Dollinger, J.) ordered that service be accomplished by e-mail pursuant to CPLR 308 (5).  The Fourth Department wrote:

“CPLR 308 (5) vests a court with the discretion to direct an alternative method for service of process when it has determined that the methods set forth in CPLR 308 (1), (2), and (4) are ‘impracticable’ ” …. “Although the impractability standard is not capable of easy definition” …, “[a] showing of impracticability under CPLR 308 (5) does not require proof of actual prior attempts to serve a party under the methods outlined pursuant to subdivisions (1), (2) or (4) of CPLR 308” ….“The meaning of ‘impracticable’ will depend upon the facts and circumstances of the particular case” ….

Here, we conclude that plaintiff made a sufficient showing that service upon defendant pursuant to CPLR 308 (1), (2), or (4) was impracticable, and thus that the court providently exercised its discretion in directing an alternative method of service …. Plaintiff submitted evidence that defendant left the United States with the parties’ child and declared her intention to remain in Iran with her family … . Further, plaintiff established that Iran and the United States do not have diplomatic relations and that Iran is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters (20 UST 361, TIAS No. 6638). Plaintiff thus requested alternative service upon defendant’s parents in Iran, with whom defendant was residing.

In light of those unique circumstances, we conclude that the court properly determined that service upon defendant was “impracticable by any method of service specified in CPLR 308 (1), (2), and (4).”

“Once the impracticability standard is satisfied, due process requires that the method of service be ‘reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise’ the defendant of the action” ….

“In order to be constitutionally adequate, the method of service need not guarantee that the defendant will receive actual notice” ….

Here, the court initially ordered service of the summons by (1) personal service upon defendant’s parents; (2) mail service upon defendant at her parents’ address in Iran; and (3) service upon defendant by plaintiff’s Iranian attorneys in accordance with Iranian law.

Pursuant to that order, plaintiff mailed the summons and notice to defendant at her parents’ last known address in Tehran and submitted a declaration by his Iranian attorney that at least two attempts were made to effect personal service upon defendant at that address.

Although defendant contended that the address used for service was “bogus,” the record reflects that the address was in fact used by defendant and/or her parents in some capacity.

Indeed, defendant supplied that address to the child’s pediatrician in requesting the child’s medical records, and she averred that her father ultimately received the documents from a “tenant” who lived at that address.

When plaintiff was unable to effect personal service upon defendant’s parents pursuant to the court’s order, the court relieved him of that obligation and instead permitted service “via email at each email address that [p]laintiff knows [d]efendant to have.” Although service of process by email “is not directly authorized by either the CPLR or the Hague Convention, it is not prohibited under either state or federal law, or the Hague Convention” … and, indeed, “both New York courts and federal courts have, upon application by plaintiffs, authorized [e]mail service of process as an appropriate alternative method when the statutory methods have proven ineffective” … .
Contrary to the contention of defendant, we conclude that plaintiff made the requisite showing that service by email was “reasonably calculated to apprise defendant of the pending lawsuit and thus satisfie[d] due process” … .
The record reflects that, for several months prior to the application for alternative service, the parties had been communicating via email at the two email addresses subsequently used for service. Although defendant claimed that she did not receive either of the emails, she acknowledged receipt of a subsequent email from plaintiff’s attorney sent to the same two email addresses.
We thus conclude that, under the circumstances of this case, the court properly determined that service of the summons with notice upon defendant by email was an appropriate form of service … .  Safadjou v Mohammadi, CA 12-00271, 359, 4th Dept, 4-26-13