DEFENDANT CANADIAN INSURANCE COMPANY’S TIES TO NEW YORK WERE NOT SUFFICIENT TO ALLOW THE EXERCISE OF LONG-ARM JURISDICTION OVER THE COMPANY (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department determined defendant insurance company’s connections to New York were insufficient to support long-arm jurisdiction:

[D]efendant … is incorporated in Canada, has its principal place of business in Canada, and is not authorized to do business in New York. Defendant issued a $10 million life insurance policy to a trust, designated on the policy application as the policy owner and beneficiary, which the record shows has its situs in New Jersey. The policy application was signed in New Jersey, and the receipt reflecting delivery of the policy identifies New Jersey as the place of execution. While the trustee may be a New York resident, he is neither the designated owner nor a beneficiary of the policy.

Plaintiff cites no authority to support its argument that New York courts may exercise jurisdiction over defendant because the policy insured the life of a New York resident. Nor do defendant’s purported ties to New York suffice. Plaintiff points out that the medical portion of the application was signed in New York by the insured and the medical examiner and that, before it was delivered to the trustee, the policy passed through two New York intermediaries. These transactions are not only too fleeting to provide a jurisdictional foundation, but are also not the acts from which plaintiff’s claims arise … . Even assuming, as the record suggests, that defendant assured plaintiff (which acquired ownership of the policy) of the incontestability of the policy by a letter faxed to a New York number, this is not sufficient to establish New York jurisdiction over defendant … . AMT Capital Holdings, S.A. v Sun Life Assur. Co. of Can., 2018 NY Slip Op 03318, First Dept 5-8-18

​CIVIL PROCEDURE (LONG ARM JURISDICTION, DEFENDANT CANADIAN INSURANCE COMPANY’S TIES TO NEW YORK WERE NOT SUFFICIENT TO ALLOW THE EXERCISE OF LONG-ARM JURISDICTION OVER THE COMPANY (FIRST DEPT))/LONG ARM JURISDICTION ( DEFENDANT CANADIAN INSURANCE COMPANY’S TIES TO NEW YORK WERE NOT SUFFICIENT TO ALLOW THE EXERCISE OF LONG-ARM JURISDICTION OVER THE COMPANY (FIRST DEPT))/INSURANCE LAW (LONG ARM JURISDICTION, DEFENDANT CANADIAN INSURANCE COMPANY’S TIES TO NEW YORK WERE NOT SUFFICIENT TO ALLOW THE EXERCISE OF LONG-ARM JURISDICTION OVER THE COMPANY (FIRST DEPT))/CPLR 302 (LONG ARM JURISDICTION, DEFENDANT CANADIAN INSURANCE COMPANY’S TIES TO NEW YORK WERE NOT SUFFICIENT TO ALLOW THE EXERCISE OF LONG-ARM JURISDICTION OVER THE COMPANY (FIRST DEPT))