When the New York State Court of Appeals rendered its Koehler decision,1 commentators believed that the court had revolutionized the law of money judgment collection: Any bank with a branch in New York State could be sued as a garnishee and ordered to restrain, and deliver to the New York court, a judgment debtor’s assets located at any of the bank’s branches anywhere in the world.2
Events have not turned out as anticipated. After five years, and dozens of garnishment actions against international banks, the lower federal and state courts disagree on the meaning of Koehler. Faced with conflicting applications of New York state law, and unclear as to the correct rule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Motorola Credit v. Standard Chartered Bank, has certified again to the New York Court of Appeals the issue of the extraterritorial reach of the New York State garnishment statute.3
