In May the Court of Appeals issued an important decision on permissible exercise of long-arm jurisdiction by New York courts over an Ohio merchant of guns. For those of us, who may believe we know most everything about New York’s venerable long-arm statute needed to make correct jurisdictional evaluations, the new decision can be somewhat humbling. Why? Because the court divided 4-3 on the result, complete with majority, concurring and dissenting opinions.

By reading the starkly opposing viewpoints—based on the same facts—one can see that there may be little room for smugness re one’s own evaluation of a long-arm jurisdiction scenario. The case is Williams v. Beemiller (N.Y. Ct. App., May 9, 2019). Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote the opinion for the court, joined in by three Judges (with Judge Paul Feinman also writing a separate concurring opinion). Judge Eugene Fahey dissented with two Judges joining his opinion.