How Many Telephone Calls Or Emails Are One Too Many?

The First Department recently adjudicated an appeal in which one of the several issues considered was whether telephone and email communications to New York from an out-of-state party sufficed to find purposeful activity or contacts that conferred personal jurisdiction.

In C. Mahendra (NY), LLC v. National Gold & Diamond Ctr., Inc., 2015 NY Slip Op 01157 (First Dept. February 10, 2015), the Appellate Division unanimously reversed, on the law, an Order of Supreme Court, New York County (Coin, J.), that "granted defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction.

The Court summarized the facts:

Plaintiff is a New York wholesale supplier of loose diamonds on consignment to vendors; defendant is a California seller of jewelry, including goods that it accepted on consignment. The parties began doing business with each other in 2002; defendant placed numerous orders, totaling millions of dollars, by telephoning plaintiff in New York and