Judge Jack Stoller
Petitioner sought possession of the subject premises in this holdover proceeding against tenant arguing the lease expired. Tenant raised a defense of lack of personal jurisdiction. The court held a traverse hearing and a process server testified he made entries into his logbook in a contemporaneous and accurate manner, but admitted he had also made incorrect entries in the logbook. The court noted the logbook showed an alleged attempt at service in Midtown Manhattan six minutes after an attempt at service on Wall Street, stating same did not appear possible. It noted the Department of Consumer Affairs regulations required a process server to use an independent third party to maintain GPS records. The court stated while the process server offered GPS records, petitioner laid no foundation for admissibility of the records by an independent third party that maintained them. It noted permitting the process server himself to lay the foundation would undermine the purpose of the new regulation. As no foundation was laid for the admissibility of the GPS records, the court ruled petitioner failed to meet its burden of proving it served the petition on tenant in compliance with Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law §735, sustaining the traverse and dismissing the petition.
