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197 Misc. 1069

Loew's Inc. v. Dorsey

New York Supreme Court

Decided March 27, 1950

New York Supreme Court · decided 1950-03-27

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Dorsey had no permanent residence and his stay in a New York Hotel, though temporary, was his only place of abode at the time of the issuance of the attachment.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Itc Entertainment Limited v. Nelson Film Partners

Relies on In Re Revocation of Ancillary Letters Testamentary of the Estate of Newcomb

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1950-03-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently May 1990

1 state decisions

2019501960197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Eder, J.

¶1Motion to vacate and set aside warrant of attachment is granted.

¶2The warrant of attachment was issued on the sole ground that defendant is a nonresident of the State of New York. The contention of the defendant is that he is now and was at the time of and for a month prior to the date of the issuance of said warrant a resident of this State within the meaning of section 903 of the Civil Practice Act, subject to the jurisdiction and process of the courts of this State.

¶3The defendant formerly resided in California but has not maintained any residence there since June, 1949. Due to the nature of his business, a traveling orchestra leader, his residence has, since that time, depended primarily on his place of employment. It appears that at the present time and since February 6, 1950, he has resided at the Hotel Statler, in New York City, occupying a suite continuously since his engagement at the Hotel Statler, having his clothes and personal effects at that location.

¶4Plaintiff argues that mere temporary physical presence in the State, and availability of service of process, is not of itself sufficient ground for the denial of attachment. It is also contended that defendant’s temporarily staying at a hotel for the period of a professional engagement, as his place of residence, may not be sufficient to overcome persuasive facts that point in *1070an opposite direction. But there is nothing shown, as persuasive, that defendant was a nonresident of New York at the time of the attachment. The converse is shown by the record presented.

¶5The test of residence under the attachment statute is actual place of abode, whether temporary or permanent (Zenatello v. Pons, 235 App. Div. 221, 225). “ Residence ” means living in a particular locality; residence simply requires bodily presence in a given place (Matter of Newcomb, 192 N. Y. 238); “ residence ”, as used in section 903 of the Civil Practice Act, means not legal domicile, but actual place of abode or living, either of a temporary or permanent character, at which a service of process may be lawfully made (Wolf v. Minton, 37 N. Y. S. 2d, 294, 295).

¶6It is clear from the cases on the subject that the test of residence is whether the defendant had a place of abode in this State, temporary or permanent, at the time of the issuance of the attachment.

¶7The record presented establishes that defendant had such place of abode at which service of process could be lawfully made.

¶8The warrant of attachment is vacated. Settle order.

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