Bill Text: NY A10353 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to venue in matrimonial actions regarding the children of the parties; provides that the place of the trial shall be in a county in which either party resides or, if there are minor children of the marriage, the place of trial may also be in the county where one of such children resides.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-06-05 - RETURNED TO ASSEMBLY [A10353 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A10353-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10353

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      May 20, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Dinowitz) --
          (at  request  of  the Office of Court Administration) -- read once and
          referred to the Committee on Judiciary

        AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation  to  venue
          in matrimonial actions

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 509 of the civil practice law and rules, as amended
     2  by chapter 773 of the laws of 1965, is amended to read as follows:
     3    § 509. Venue in county designated. Notwithstanding  any  provision  of
     4  this  article except for rule 515, the place of trial of an action shall
     5  be in the county designated by the plaintiff, unless the place of  trial
     6  is  changed  to  another  county  by order upon motion, or by consent as
     7  provided in subdivision (b) of rule 511 of this article.
     8    § 2. The civil practice law and rules is amended by adding a new  rule
     9  515 to read as follows:
    10    Rule  515.  Venue in matrimonial actions. (a) This rule applies to all
    11  actions wherein all or part  of  the  relief  granted  is  divorce,  all
    12  actions brought in supreme court for custody or visitation, all applica-
    13  tions  to  modify  a  supreme  court order of custody or visitation, all
    14  actions wherein all or part of the relief granted  is  the  dissolution,
    15  annulment  or  declaration of the nullity of a marriage, all proceedings
    16  to obtain a distribution of marital property following a  foreign  judg-
    17  ment  of divorce, and all post-judgment proceedings following a judgment
    18  of divorce.
    19    (b) Notwithstanding anything to the  contrary  in  this  article,  the
    20  place  of  trial  in  an  action subject to subdivision (a) of this rule
    21  shall be in a county in which either party  resides  or,  if  there  are
    22  minor  children  of  the marriage, the place of trial may also be in the
    23  county where one of such children resides; except that where any of  the
    24  addresses of these residences is not a matter of public record, or where
    25  any  of  these addresses is subject to an existing confidentiality order
    26  pursuant to section 254 of the domestic relations law or  section  154-b
    27  of  the family court act, the place of trial designated by the plaintiff

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD10083-01-3
        A. 10353                            2

     1  in any action specified in subdivision (a) of this rule may be as speci-
     2  fied in section 509 of this article.
     3    (c) In any action specified in subdivision (a) of this rule, the court
     4  may,  for  good  cause  shown,  allow  the  trial  to proceed before it,
     5  notwithstanding that venue would not lie pursuant to subdivision (b)  of
     6  this  rule.  Good cause applications shall be made by motion or order to
     7  show cause.
     8    § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
     9  have become a law and shall apply to matrimonial actions commenced on or
    10  after such date.