New York State Thruway Authority v. Fenech

Nathan Fenech (defendant) drove, and Silver Creek Transport, Ltd. (Silver Creek) (defendant) owned, a truck that damaged a bridge owned by the New York State Thruway Authority (authority) (plaintiff) in New York. Fenech and Silver Creek both were Canadian residents. The authority sued Fenech and Silver Creek regarding the accident. The authority served Fenech and Silver Creek with process by mail pursuant to New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law. Fenech and Silver Creek moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that service by mail on them in Canada was prohibited by the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (Hague Convention), a treaty that both the United States and Canada signed. Specifically, Fenech and Silver Creek argued that the Hague Convention required the United States and Canada to establish central authorities to receive and serve international requests for service of process and did not allow international service by mail. The authority responded that Hague Convention Article 10(a) allowed litigants to send judicial documents directly to persons abroad by mail and that this right encompassed serving process abroad by mail. The authority also noted that the Canadian government did not object to the service of international process on Canadians by mail. Relying on an earlier decision of this department (the Third Department) holding that Article 10(a) did not authorize service of process by international mail because the provision referred to sending documents rather than serving documents, the supreme court granted Fenech and Silver Creek’s motion to dismiss. The authority appealed.