The authors of “New York State Legislature Seeks to Overturn ‘Daimler’” (NYLJ, May 20) claim that a pending New York bill, S. 4846, would “ eviscerate a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision,” Daimler v. Bauman, 134 S. Ct. 746 (2014), “arguably the most important Supreme Court ruling on general personal jurisdiction in 70 years.” Contrary to such cries of constitutional catastrophe, the bill would simply recodify long-standing New York law as to consent to jurisdiction by a foreign corporation registering to do business in New York—an issue not addressed in Daimler.
Business Corporation Law §1301(a) provides that “[a] foreign corporation shall not do business in this state until it has been authorized to do so as provided in this article;” BCL §304(a) provides that “[t]he secretary of state shall be the agent of … every authorized foreign corporation upon whom process against the corporation may be served;” and BCL §306(b)(1) provides for “[s]ervice of process on the secretary of state as agent of a[n] … authorized foreign corporation.”
