Pryor v. Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company

• Decision Date: 11 April 2005
• Docket Number: 2002-06455.
• Citation: 17 A.D.3d 434,2005 NY Slip Op 02820,793 N.Y.S.2d 452
• Parties: ANDREA PRYOR, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH LAND TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY, Respondent.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

17 A.D.3d 434

793 N.Y.S.2d 452

2005 NY Slip Op 02820

ANDREA PRYOR, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH LAND TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY, Respondent.

2002-06455.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Second Department.

April 11, 2005.

Motion by the defendant for leave to reargue or, in the alternative, for clarification of a decision and order of this Court dated November 17, 2003 [1 AD3d 494], which determined an appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County, dated June 12, 2002.

Upon the papers filed in support of the motion and the papers filed in opposition thereto, it is,

Ordered that so much of the motion as seeks clarification of the decision and order dated November 17, 2003, is granted, and the motion is otherwise denied; and it is further,

Ordered that the decision and order dated November 17, 2003, in the above-entitled action is recalled and vacated, and the following decision and order is substituted therefor:

In an action to recover damages for breach of a title insurance policy and for a declaration that the defendant is obligated to defend and indemnify the plaintiff for legal fees, costs, and expenses incurred in prosecuting this action and a related action entitled Pryor v Dinan, pending in the Supreme Court, Suffolk County, under index No. 01663/99, the plaintiff appeals from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Henry, J.), dated June 12, 2002, as granted the defendant's motion for leave to reargue the plaintiff's prior cross motion for summary judgment which was determined in an order of the same court dated September 28, 2001, and upon reargument, inter alia, denied the motion for summary judgment and dismissed those portions of the complaint seeking a declaration that the defendant is obligated to defend the plaintiff in the related action, indemnify her for legal fees, costs, and expenses incurred in that action, and indemnify her for legal fees, costs, and expenses in this action.

Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs, the defendant's motion for leave to reargue is denied, the order dated September 28, 2001, is reinstated, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Suffolk County, for entry of a judgment in accordance herewith.

The plaintiff is the owner of certain real property, the title to which is insured by a policy issued by the defendant. After a dispute arose between the plaintiff and an adjacent property owner concerning the ownership of certain property near a shared border, the plaintiff wrote the defendant and demanded that it provide legal representation to defend her title to the disputed property. The defendant disclaimed coverage on the ground that the disputed property was not within the property described in the insurance policy issued to the plaintiff and, therefore, the title to the same was not insured under the policy. The plaintiff thereafter commenced an action against the adjacent property owner to quiet title...