DEFENDANTS, OPERATORS OF A VIRGINIA HOTEL WHERE PLAINTIFF WAS INJURED IN A SHOWER, DEMONSTRATED THE ABSENCE OF BUSINESS TIES TO NEW YORK, THE FACT THAT NEW YORKERS CAN MAKE RESERVATIONS THROUGH A WEBSITE IS NOT ENOUGH.
The Second Department determined defendants’ hotel’s motion to dismiss based upon the lack of business ties to New York was properly granted. Plaintiff was injured in a shower in the hotel, which is located in Virginia. The defendants demonstrated they did not do business in New York. The fact that reservations could be made through a website (accessed in New York) was not enough. There was no showing the injury was linked to the use of the website:
… [T]he plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the defendants purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting business in New York. Moreover, accepting as true the plaintiffs’ allegation that the defendants were involved in maintaining or operating a website that permitted consumers in New York to make reservations at the subject hotel in Virginia, they failed to make a prima facie showing that there was a substantial relationship between the causes of action asserted in the complaint and any alleged transaction of business through that website … .
The plaintiffs also failed to make a prima facie showing that personal jurisdiction exists under CPLR 302(a)(4) based on ownership, use, or possession of any real property within the state … .
Furthermore, contrary to their contention, the plaintiffs have not made ” a sufficient start'” to warrant holding this branch of the defendants’ motion in abeyance while discovery is conducted on the issue of jurisdiction … . The plaintiffs have not alleged facts which would support personal jurisdiction under either CPLR 302(a)(1) or CPLR 302(a)(4), and thus have failed to indicate how further discovery might lead to evidence showing that personal jurisdiction exists here … . Leuthner v Homewood Suites by Hilton, 2017 NY Slip Op 05212, 2nd Dept 6-28-17