*1 Defendants appeal from the order of the Supreme Court, New York County (Paul Wooten, J.), entered October 22, 2014, which, insofar as appealed from, denied their motion to dismiss plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in lieu of complaint for recognition and enforcement of a foreign country judgment pursuant to CPLR article 53.*2
DAVID FRIEDMAN, J.This appeal arises from a proceeding to recognize and enforce a foreign country judgment under CPLR article 53. Defendants have raised colorable statutory grounds for denying the foreign judgment recognition. Under these circumstances, we hold that there must be either an in personam or an in rem jurisdictional basis for maintaining the recognition and enforcement proceeding against defendants in New York. Because plaintiff does not claim that such jurisdiction is demonstrated on the existing record, and, on appeal, does not seek an opportunity to gather evidence to demonstrate that such jurisdiction exists, we conclude that New York lacks jurisdiction to entertain this proceeding. Accordingly, we reverse the order appealed from and grant defendants’ motion to dismiss the proceeding pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(8).Plaintiff AlbaniaBEG Ambient Sh.p.k. (ABA) is an Albanian subsidiary of nonparty Becchetti Energy Group S.p.A. (BEG), an Italian company. Defendants Enel S.p.A. and Enelpower S.p.A. are, respectively, parent and subsidiary, both organized under Italian law and having their principal places of business in Italy. Enel is Italy’s largest power company.In February 2000, BEG and Enelpower entered into an agreement (hereinafter, the BEG-Enelpower agreement) for the possible construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Albania, pursuant to a concession previously granted to BEG by the Albanian government. The BEG-Enelpower agreement contained an Italian choice-of-law clause and provided for the resolution of any disputes by arbitration in Rome. Less than a year later, Enelpower concluded that the project was not feasible and withdrew from it, pursuant (as Enelpower claimed) to its right of withdrawal under the BEG-Enelpower agreement.After Enelpower withdrew from the Albanian project, BEG initiated an arbitration against it in Rome, claiming that the withdrawal was a breach of contract and an act of bad faith. In December 2002, the Rome arbitration panel issued an award dismissing BEG’s claims against Enelpower. BEG brought proceedings in the Italian courts seeking to have the award nullified. BEG’s arguments for nullification of the award were rejected by a judgment of the Court of Appeals of Rome in 2009, and that judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Italy in 2010.1
