Garcia v. Motor Vehicle Acc. Indemnification Corp.
| Decision Date | 15 January 1964 |
| Citation | 41 Misc.2d 858,246 N.Y.S.2d 841 |
| Parties | In the Matter of the Arbitration Attempted to be had by Luis GARCIA, Petitioner, v. MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT INDEMNIFICATION CORPORATION, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
Morton Levy, New York City, for petitioner.
Carroll & Spencer, New York City, for respondent.
This is a motion by MVAIC for a permanent stay of arbitration.
Claimant was a passenger in a vehicle owned by Orefina Delgado and operated by one Ismael Feliciano and allegedly received personal injuries when the automobile struck a wall. The vehicle at the time of the accident was insured by All State Insurance Company, which policy contained a 'New York Automobile Accident Indemnification Endorsement'.
Subsequently the liability carrier disclaimed liability because of the failure of the insured to properly notify them of the accident. Thereafter claimant filed a notice of claim with MVAIC.
In this application for a permanent stay, MVAIC contends that claimant was not an 'insured person' under the statute because the disclaimer by the carrier rendered the vehicle 'uninsured' thereby rendering the policy and the endorsement contained therein, inapplicable to the accident, which therefore, precludes arbitration.
The MVAIC Law (Art. 17-A of the Insurance Law) obviously was enacted to protect those who through no fault of their own are involved in a motor vehicle accident caused by an 'uninsured vehicle'. The statute was enacted to correct inadequacies in the Compulsory Insurance Law.
The Courts have time and again decreed that----
'It is a basic canon of construction that when called upon to interpret clauses of insurance policies, the courts will give to the language a construction most favorable to the insured.' (Appleton v. Merchants Mutual Ins. Co., 16 A.D.2d 361, 363, 228 N.Y.S.2d 442, 444.)
The Court in Appleton, supra, further said that:
'If the words used are capable of more than one reasonable interpretation, one of which would result in coverage and another not result in coverage, then the court will adopt the construction resulting in coverage * * *'.
A disclaimer or denial of liability by an insurance company may place the automobile in the position of an uninsured automobile.
There is no question that when claimant became a passenger in the car he was an 'insured' under the MVAIC statute. (See Matter of Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corp. [Goldman...
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