NEW YORK PLAINTIFF, NORTH CAROLINA DEFENDANT, TORTS ALLEGEDLY OCCURRED IN GEORGIA; UNDER A CONFLICT OF LAWS ANALYSIS GEORGIA LAW CONTROLS (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department determined Supreme Court properly ruled that Georgia law controlled the action which alleged Bank of America’s employees or agents notarized documents with false signatures. The torts were alleged to have occurred in Georgia. Plaintiff was a domiciliary of New York and Bank of America was a domiciliary of North Carolina:

If the conflicting laws regulate conduct, the law of the place of the tort applies because of the “locus jurisdiction’s interests in protecting the reasonable expectations of the parties” and “the admonitory effect that applying its law will have on similar conduct in the future” … . Where [, as here], however, the conflicting laws relate to the allocation of losses, then “considerations of the State’s admonitory interest and party reliance are less important” … . Nevertheless, pursuant to the third rule set forth in Neumeier v Kuehner (31 NY2d 121, 128 [1972]), i.e., where the parties are domiciled in different states with conflicting laws, the law of the place of the tort normally applies, unless displacing it “will advance the relevant substantive law purposes without impairing the smooth working of the multi-state system or producing great uncertainty for litigants” … . We conclude that plaintiff “failed to establish that the exception applies to warrant a departure from the locus jurisdiction rule” … , and thus the third Neumeier rule warrants the application of the law of Georgia in this action … . Durham Commercial Capital Corp. v Arunachalam, 2020 NY Slip Op 02024, Fourth Dept 3-20-20