Cirone v. Tower Insurance Company of New York
Decision Date | 26 April 2007 |
Docket Number | 918. |
Citation | 39 A.D.3d 435,835 N.Y.S.2d 111,2007 NY Slip Op 03749 |
Parties | BARBARA J. CIRONE et al., Respondents, v. TOWER INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK, Appellant. |
Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Plaintiffs were injured when, while walking on the street, they were struck by an underage bicyclist making a delivery for defendant's insured. Plaintiffs' counsel and an investigator made an unsuccessful attempt to identify the insurer of the bicyclist's alleged employer, and then brought a tort action against defendant's insured and its principal, who gave defendant insurer notice of the occurrence. Defendant admittedly assigned an employee to the matter and, in the course of working on the file, that employee admittedly contacted plaintiffs' counsel, who provided certain information. Defendant disclaimed on the ground that its insured had not fulfilled its contractual duty to give notice of the occurrence as soon as practicable, but, under a stipulation, did file an answer on the insured's behalf in the tort action. Under the particular circumstances of this case, where the efforts of the injured parties making a claim under Insurance Law § 3420 to facilitate proper notice "were sufficient in light of the opportunities to do so afforded [them] under the circumstances" (see Appel v Allstate Ins. Co., 20 AD3d 367, 369 [2005] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]), the motion court properly found that plaintiffs' action is not barred by the circumstance that they did not give defendant insurer separate, formal, written notice of the occurrence in a communication initiated by them, in addition to the notice defendant received from its insured and the information it received from plaintiffs' counsel. For this reason, we need not and do not reach plaintiffs' argument that the disclaimer letter was ineffective as against them. In addition, in light of defendant's failure to argue specifically before the motion court that there was only one occurrence within the meaning of the policy, we do not reach that...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Cirone v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y.
...judgment to plaintiffs, holding that they gave Tower proper notice of the accident. Tower appealed, and this Court affirmed (39 A.D.3d 435, 835 N.Y.S.2d 111 [2007], lv. denied 9 N.Y.3d 808, 844 N.Y.S.2d 784, 876 N.E.2d 513 [2007] ). Thereafter, Navana assigned all of its rights and claims a......
-
Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y. v. Rong Rong Sun
...owner to prevent disclosure of the insurance information sought by the plaintiff]; see also Cirone v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y., 39 A.D.3d 435, 435–36, 835 N.Y.S.2d 111 [1st Dept. 2007] [motion court properly found that the plaintiffs' action was not barred by the failure to give the defendant......
-
Tower Nat'l Ins. Co. v. $1 Plus Depot, Inc.
...to Tower, since she failed to identify any “efforts” she undertook to facilitate proper notice ( see Cirone v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y., 39 A.D.3d 435, 835 N.Y.S.2d 111 [1st Dept.2007], lv. denied9 N.Y.3d 808, 844 N.Y.S.2d 784, 876 N.E.2d 513 [2007] ), or “the means available for such notice”......
-
Cirone v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y.
...N.E.2d 513 9 N.Y.3d 808 CIRONE v. TOWER INS. CO. OF N.Y. Court of Appeals of New York. October 11, 2007. Appeal from 1st Dept.: 39 A.D.3d 435, 835 N.Y.S.2d 111 Motion for Leave to appeal ...