On December 12, 2023, the First Department issued a decision in IKB Intl., S.A. v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 2023 NY Slip Op. 06333, holding that the location of the accrual of assigned claims for borrowing statute purposes was the location of the assignor, explaining:
Between 2005 and 2007, plaintiffs IKB Deutsche Industriebank A.G., a German bank, and IKB International, S.A. a Luxembourg entity wholly owned by IKB A.G., purchased residential mortgage-backed securities certificates issued by various trusts. Nonparty Rio Debt Holdings (Ireland) Limited is an Irish special purpose entity that held the RMBS certificates during the relevant period and assigned its claims to IKB Deutsche Industriebank in 2012. The parties agree that plaintiffs, commercial banks incorporated in Germany, are not New York residents, and that the claims accrued outside of New York.
Supreme Court properly found that the cause of action accrued in Ireland where Rio Debt Holdings resided. New York State’s borrowing statute, CPLR 202, provides that if a nonresident sues on a cause of action accruing outside of New York, the claim must be timely under the limitation periods of both New York and the jurisdiction where the cause of action accrued. Furthermore, in contract cases involving a purely economic injury, such as this one, accrual is determined by the place of injury — usually, where the plaintiff resides and has felt the economic impact of loss. Here, however, because plaintiff is asserting claims solely as an assignee, the residence of the assignor — Rio Debt Holdings — will determine the place of accrual.
We decline to employ a multifactor test to determine where plaintiffs’ purported injury was felt, as such a test is contrary to Court of Appeals precedent. Even giving full weight to defendants’ argument that the residence of the party who became poorer is controlling, that entity is Rio Debt Holdings, as it owned the relevant residential mortgage-backed securities certificates at the time of the alleged loss and received the unpaid distributions on the certificates in Ireland.
(Internal citations omitted).