People ex rel. Holman v Cunningham
2010 NY Slip Op 04076 [73 AD3d 1298]
May 13, 2010
Appellate Division, Third Department
As corrected through Wednesday, June 30, 2010


The People of the State of New York ex rel. Eugene Holman,Appellant,
v
Raymond Cunningham, as Superintendent of Woodbourne CorrectionalFacility, et al., Respondents.

[*1]Eugene Holman, Woodbourne, appellant pro se.

Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, New York City (Laura Johnson of counsel), forrespondents.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (LaBuda, J.), entered January 29, 2009 inSullivan County, which, in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 70, granted respondents'motion to dismiss the petition.

Petitioner brought this application pursuant to CPLR article 70 seeking a writ of habeascorpus following the denial of his request for parole release. Supreme Court signed an order toshow cause directing the manner in which service of the papers was to be made uponrespondents and the Attorney General. Respondents successfully moved to dismiss the petitionfor lack of personal jurisdiction and this appeal ensued.

We affirm. An inmate's failure to serve papers in accordance with the directives set forth bythe court in an order to show cause is a jurisdictional defect requiring dismissal of the petitionabsent a demonstration by the inmate that obstacles presented by his or her imprisonmentprecluded compliance (see People exrel. Wager v Greene, 37 AD3d 949 [2007]; People ex rel. Brown v Greene, 10 AD3d 746 [2004]; People ex rel. Watson v Walsh, 7AD3d 850 [2004]). Petitioner did not serve the papers in accordance with the provisions ofthe order to show cause [*2]and has not provided an adequateexcuse for his failure to do so (see People ex rel. Bernard v Cunningham, 73 AD3d 1306[2010] [decided herewith]).

Peters, J.P., Lahtinen, Malone Jr., Stein and Egan Jr., JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgmentis affirmed, without costs.


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