Defunct Philadelphia law firm Wolf Block's corporate registration in New Jersey and its acceptance of service there for a malpractice suit against it did not give a New Jersey court jurisdiction to hear the case, the Appellate Division has ruled.

The decision is the first published case in a New Jersey court to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's latest rulings on general jurisdiction, including Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California, said Stephen Orlofsky, the lawyer representing Wolf Block in the case.

The appeals court, in a published decision, affirmed a trial judge's ruling dismissing the suit by a Florida company represented by Wolf Block in a deal to purchase land in West Virginia. Although the firm had some connections to New Jersey, the alleged negligence forming the basis of the plaintiff's suit did not arise from the firm's contacts with the state, and no relationship can be shown between the suit and the firm's New Jersey connections, the appeals court said in Dutch Run-Mays Draft v. Wolf Block.