On January 28, 2025, New York State’s Chief Administrative Judge signed Administrative Order #38-2025, which materially alters the jurisdiction of the Commercial Division for cases seeking only equitable or declaratory relief. Currently, a party seeking Commercial Division treatment of such a matter must certify only that the case is “presumptively commercial.” Effective March 31, 2025, however, cases seeking exclusively equitable or declaratory relief must also satisfy the monetary threshold requirement set for the county in which the case is pending. In determining whether the case meets the threshold jurisdictional amount, the Court must consider the “value of the object of the action,” assessed at the time application is made for Commercial Division treatment. The amended rule defines “value of the object of the action” as “the value of the suit’s intended benefit, the value of the right being protected, or the value of the injury being averted, whichever is greatest.”
The Commercial Division Advisory Council proposed this amendment circumscribing the Commercial Division’s jurisdiction in order to reduce the number of cases that currently qualify for Commercial Division treatment but do not necessarily justify the expenditure of the Division’s resources. The Council anticipates that the amendment will do just that, enabling the Division to continue its focus on complex and resource intensive litigations.
Credit to Jonathan Lupkin, a member of the Commercial Division Advisory Council and Chair of the Commercial Litigation Practice at Rottenstreich Farley Bronstein Fisher Potter Hodas LLP.
Posted by Doug Toering and Brian Markham of Mantese Honigman, P.C.
