The case of the day is AIG Property & Casualty Co. v. Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2017). Gregory Callimanopulos owned a building abutting Myanmar’s mission to the UN. He claimed that his property suffered water damage after the mission negligently failed to maintain its plumbing. His insurer, AIG, paid a claim and then sued the mission as subrogee. AIG served process on the mission “by leaving a true copy with Rose Aikiraz, being authorized to accept legal papers stated.” Oops!

The odd thing about the case is that Myanmar filed an answer and a counterclaim rather than simply moving to dismiss on account of the bad service. It’s also odd that Myanmar didn’t remove the case to the District Court. So there was a question about whether, by asserting a counterclaim, Myanmar had waived its objection to personal jurisdiction. Because the counterclaim arose out of the same facts as the claim, the court held, citing New York precedent, that there was no waiver. So the judge dismissed the case without prejudice.