On March 13, 2025, the First Department issued a decision in Matter of Shasha v. Malkin, 2025 NY Slip Op. 01434, holding that opposing counsel’s past practice of accepting service by e-mail did not constitute agreement to accept such service in a new proceeding, explaining:
[T]he Malkin parties failed to serve their federal petition on the Shasha parties within the strict three-month statute of limitations under the Federal Arbitration Act. Their purported email service on the Shasha parties’ counsel on the final day of the three-month period was insufficient. There is no evidence that counsel expressly consented to service of the petition by email and counsel’s acceptance of email service of filings in the arbitration and other proceedings did not establish consent to email service of the federal petition.
(Internal citations omitted).