James Knight v. The New York and Presbyterian Hospital, et al.

New York City, New York personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff on a medical malpractice theory.



Plaintiff, decedent's son and Administrator of her estate, brought this negligence, medical malpractice, and wrongful death action in Supreme Court, New York County, against Dewitt and others not relevant to this appeal. Plaintiff alleged that decedent was a resident at Dewitt, a skilled nursing facility and rehabilitation center, in both February and March of 2019. Dewitt timely moved for an order transferring venue to Nassau County pursuant to a forum selection clause in two admission agreements electronically signed by decedent. In support of the motion, Dewitt submitted the agreements and an affidavit from Dewitt's director of admissions, Francesca Trimarchi. Plaintiff opposed with his own affirmation, asserting that Dewitt failed to meet its authentication burden because Trimarchi did not personally witness decedent sign the agreements and because Dewitt did not otherwise lay a proper foundation for the admission of the agreements as business records. Plaintiff claimed that the signatures on the admission agreements were not genuine and included an exemplar of decedent's purported handwritten signature for comparison.



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A contractual clause fixing venue "made before an action is commenced, shall be enforced upon a motion for change of place of trial," subject to limited exceptions not relevant here (CPLR 501; see CPLR 510 [2]; 514). Although forum selection clauses were "once disfavored by the courts," it has long been "recognized that parties to a contract may freely select a forum which will resolve any disputes over the interpretation or performance of the contract [] [and] [s]uch clauses are prima facie valid and enforceable unless shown by the resisting party to be unreasonable" (Brooke Group v JCH Syndicate 488, 87 N.Y.2d 530, 534 [1996] [internal citations omitted]). Forum selection clauses may designate a jurisdiction, such as the federal or state court system, or the clause may designate a venue within the State, as was done here by specifying Nassau County as the proper venue (compare Hunt v Landers, 309 A.D.2d 900 [2d Dept 2003] [forum selection clause designating venue in a specific county in New York] with Boss v American Express Fin Advisors, Inc., 6 N.Y.3d 242 [2006] [dismissal was appropriate where the parties agreed to litigate their claim in Minnesota]; see also Lowenbraun v McKeon, 98 A.D.3d 655, 656 [2d Dept 2012] [holding that a forum selection clause may warrant dismissal where it provides that disputes arising under the agreement be litigated in a different state or federal court]). "Venue presupposes that the court already has both subject matter and personal jurisdiction"; otherwise, dismissal on jurisdictional grounds would make the issue "academic" (David D. Siegel, NY Prac § 116 [6th ed 2024]). New York State supreme courts enjoy statewide jurisdiction, so if any county possesses jurisdiction over a case, "every [s]upreme [c]ourt in the state possesses such jurisdiction irrespective of county" (Vincent C. Alexander, Practice Commentaries, C501:1, citing Grune v Grenis, 171 A.D.2d 1070 [4th Dept 1991]; see also Benson v Eastern Bldg & Loan Assn., 174 NY 83, 86 [1903] [in New York "there is but one [s]upreme [c]ourt; the court when it sits in Onondaga county and when it sits in Oswego county is exactly the same court"]). As a result, while defects in jurisdiction or on forum non conveniens grounds may result in dismissal of an action, "[a] mere defect of venue... is not a dismissal ground in New York practice" but results only in a transfer to the correct venue (Siegel, NY Prac §§ 116, 117; Benson, 174 NY at 86-87); see also Lowenbraun, 98 A.D.3d at 656-657 [recognizing that "(i)mproper venue is not a jurisdictional defect requiring dismissal of the action"] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]).



Knight v. The N.Y. & Presbyterian Hosp., 2024 NY Slip Op 05870, No. 92 (N.Y. Nov 25, 2024)

Reversed