Opinion
Argued August 21, 2001.
August 22, 2001.
In a proceeding pursuant to Election Law § 16-102, inter alia, to validate a petition designating John J. Dawson as a candidate in a primary election to be held on September 11, 2001, for the nomination of the Independence and Conservative Parties as their candidate for the public office of Westchester County Legislator for the 12th Legislative District, the appeal is from so much of an order and final order (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Barone, J.), entered August 15, 2001, as, among other things, denied the motion of Thomas Abinanti, inter alia, to dismiss the proceeding insofar as asserted on behalf of John J. Dawson for failure to name and serve a necessary party, and validated the petition designating John J. Dawson.
Before: Fred T. Santucci, J.P., Gabriel M. Krausman, Gloria Goldstein, Barry A. Cozier, JJ.
ORDERED that the order and final order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, without costs or disbursements, that branch of the appellant's motion which was to dismiss the proceeding insofar as asserted on behalf of John J. Dawson for failure to name and serve a necessary party is granted, the proceeding is dismissed insofar as asserted on behalf of John J. Dawson, and the matter is remitted to the Westchester County Board of Elections to remove the name of the petitioner John J. Dawson from the appropriate ballots.
The petitioner John J. Dawson contends that the Westchester County Board of Elections was the only necessary and proper party to this validation proceeding, necessitating service of process upon that body alone. We disagree. There were two objectors to the designating petition — the appellant, Thomas Abinanti, and Michael Weinberg. Although the petitioner properly named and served Abinanti as a party to the proceeding, due to Dawson's failure to name and serve Weinberg, the court lacked personal jurisdiction over a necessary party. Therefore, the proceeding should have been dismissed (see, Matter of Gadsen v. Board of Elections, 57 N.Y.2d 751; Matter of Wein v. Molinari, 51 N.Y.2d 717; Matter of Marchant v. Echaveste, 186 A.D.2d 101; Matter of Moss v. D'Apice, 138 A.D.2d 436; Matter of Philpotts v. Black, 122 A.D.2d 909; Matter of Brosnan v. Black, 104 A.D.2d 469, affd 63 N.Y.2d 692).
In light of the foregoing, we need not reach the appellant's remaining contentions.