Legislation

§ 307. Service of process

1. Service by personal delivery. Service of the process may be made on
any person by personal delivery of a copy of the process either within
or without the state.

2. Service by registered or certified mail, or by special mail
service. Service of the process may be made by registered or certified
mail, or by special mail service, within or without the state.

3. Service by court order. As an alternative to service under
subdivisions 1 and 2, service may be made in the manner directed by the
court; but such service, except as provided by subdivision 6, shall not
be ordered upon a domiciliary natural person unless it be shown that,
with due diligence, service under subdivision 1 or 2 cannot be effected,
or where for good cause shown, such service would be impracticable. Any
proof necessary hereunder may be submitted in the petition or by
affidavit. The court may take into account the size of the estate and
the remoteness of kinship of any person to be cited in determining the
appropriate due diligence necessary to permit alternate service under
this section. The court may direct service by any one or more of the
following methods, which shall not, however, be exclusive:

(a) service by publication, such as is provided by CPLR 316, subject
to 308 and 309, and to such variations of CPLR 316 as the court may
provide, except that

(i) where persons are to be served by publication, publication in only
1 newspaper shall be required, or

(ii) where a person is alleged to be within a country with which the
United States of America is at war or a place with which the United
States of America does not maintain postal communication, the court may
direct that a copy of the process shall be mailed on behalf of such
person to the officer who may have been appointed to take possession of
the property of noncitizen enemies, or

(iii) where the person to be served is an absentee or alleged to be
deceased, the court may direct that in addition to the foregoing
requirements, the process be published in a newspaper published at or
near the place where the absentee was last known to be, or

(iv) in an adoption proceeding under article seven of the domestic
relations law or in a proceeding under section three hundred
eighty-four-b of the social services law, a single publication in only
one newspaper shall be sufficient.

(b) service by electronic means, as that term is defined by CPLR
2103(f)(2), bearing the caption of the matter in the subject line of
said transmission;

(c) substituted service such as is provided by CPLR 308 (2) and (4),
within or without the state, subject to 308 and 309, and to such
variations of CPLR 308 as the court may provide;

(d) service within or without the state, by personal delivery to a
person duly designated by respondent to receive process on the
respondent's behalf, or to a person whose relationship, whatever its
character, and by blood or otherwise to the respondent, indicates in the
circumstances the probability that actual notice will reach the latter;

(e) if the interest of a non-domiciliary noncitizen in the estate is
less than $2,500 or such person's address is unknown or such estate's
gross assets are less than $25,000, by delivery of a copy of the process
to a consular official of the noncitizen's nation.

4. Service upon an infant. Service upon an infant requires that
service of process be made upon any one of the following, unless any
such one of them is the petitioner, in which case no such service shall
be required: his father, his mother, his guardian, any adult person
having the care and control of him or with whom he resides, or such
person interested in his welfare or education as the court shall by
order direct, where it appears to the satisfaction of the court that
need for such order exists; and if the infant be of the age of 14 years
or over, also upon the infant in person.

5. Service upon an incompetent, conservatee and persons other than
natural persons. Unless this act otherwise provides or the court in a
given proceeding otherwise directs, CPLR 307, 309 (b), 309 (c), 310,
310-a, 311, 311-a, 312 and 1025 are applicable to service under the
foregoing subdivisions of this section.

6. Service upon creditors. Process may be served upon creditors,
regardless of the number thereof, by mailing a copy of the process to
each of them whether or not they be natural domiciliaries.