Opinion
March 23, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Beatrice Shainswit, J.).
Full faith and credit requires the New York courts to give effect to the Connecticut court's 1992 declaration that it had jurisdiction over plaintiff in the earlier interpleader action that discharged defendant from liability on the judgment plaintiff seeks to enforce herein. This is so notwithstanding the prior pronouncement of this Court that the Connecticut interpleader court lacked such jurisdiction ( 172 A.D.2d 255, lv denied 78 N.Y.2d 984), since a foreign court's finding on its own jurisdiction is entitled to full faith and credit even though at odds with an earlier finding on jurisdiction by a New York court (Di Russo v. Di Russo, 55 Misc.2d 839, 845-847). As the IAS Court aptly put it, "the litigation landscape has changed with the rendition of the Connecticut declaratory judgment". It should also be noted that this Court did expressly give defendant leave to pursue "further proceedings before the Connecticut Superior Court for the purpose of determining whether that court had jurisdiction over plaintiff in a 1984 interpleader action" ( 180 A.D.2d 610). In view of the foregoing, the extent of plaintiff's entitlement to interest is moot.
We have considered plaintiff's remaining arguments and find them to be without merit.
Concur — Rosenberger, J.P., Rubin, Ross, Nardelli and Williams, JJ.