Order of the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Barry Sal-man, J.), entered October 11, 1994 which, inter alia, denied plaintiff’s cross-motion to dismiss the affirmative defense of lack of personal jurisdiction asserted by defendant E. Laursen Maskingfabrik A/S, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the second affirmative defense of said defendant dismissed, without costs.
Plaintiffs three right middle fingers were amputated after his hand became caught in a cable-cutting machine manufactured by defendant E. Laursen Maskingfabrik A/S ("Laursen”), a Danish Corporation. It is plaintiffs allegation that Laursen negligently manufactured the machine without providing a guard or other safety devices and without providing a warning of its dangers or instructions for its proper installation and operation.
Supreme Court granted plaintiffs cross-motion to the extent of striking Laursen’s affirmative defense of improper service, finding that it failed to rebut clear evidence of service in accordance with the Hague Convention. However, the court denied so much of the cross-motion as sought to strike the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction, deeming Laursen’s first answer, served before it had properly been served with the complaint, to be a nullity. The court therefore concluded that Laursen was entitled to raise any and all defenses available to it in response to the properly served summons and complaint.
As this Court has observed, "a defendant who has a defense predicated on a lack of in personam jurisdiction may pursue one of two options: either litigate the issue in the main action or decline to appear and accept a default judgment, deferring litigation of the issue until a proceeding is brought to enforce the judgment and mounting a collateral attack at that time” (Boorman v Deutsch, 152 AD2d 48, 54, lv dismissed 76 NY2d 889; Siegel, NY Prac § 111, at 177 [2d ed]). In general, a "defendant appears by serving an answer or a notice of appearance, or by making a motion which has the effect of extending the time to answer” (CPLR 320 [a]). An appearance by a defendant is equivalent to personal service of the summons upon it, unless objection to jurisdiction is asserted either in a pre-answer CPLR 3211 motion or in the answer (CPLR 3211 [e]; Wiesener v Avis Rent-A-Car, 182 AD2d 372).
As the Court of Appeals noted in Addesso v Shemtob (70 NY2d 689, 690), "There is no reason to depart from the
