December 19, 2017

City Care Acupuncture, P.C. v Allstate Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. (2017 NY Slip Op 51839(U))

Headnote

The court considered the issue of whether an action by providers to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits was premature because the plaintiffs had failed to provide requested verification. The main issue was whether the plaintiffs had provided all of the requested verification, as required by law. The court held that the action was indeed premature, as the record demonstrated that the defendant had not received all of the requested verification. Therefore, the court affirmed the order of the Civil Court, which had granted the defendant's cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

Reported in New York Official Reports at City Care Acupuncture, P.C. v Allstate Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. (2017 NY Slip Op 51839(U))

City Care Acupuncture, P.C. v Allstate Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. (2017 NY Slip Op 51839(U)) [*1]
City Care Acupuncture, P.C. v Allstate Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co.
2017 NY Slip Op 51839(U) [58 Misc 3d 138(A)]
Decided on December 19, 2017
Appellate Term, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on December 19, 2017
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, SECOND DEPARTMENT, 2d, 11th and 13th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : MICHAEL L. PESCE, P.J., THOMAS P. ALIOTTA, MARTIN M. SOLOMON, JJ
2015-1846 Q C

City Care Acupuncture, P.C. and Jamaica Wellness Medical, P.C., as Assignees of Irina Sergheiciuc, Appellants,

against

Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Respondent.

Amos Weinberg, Esq., for appellants. Abrams, Cohen & Associates, P.C. (Frank Piccininni, Esq.), for respondent.

Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Terrence C. O’Connor, J.), entered May 28, 2015. The order, insofar as appealed from as limited by the brief, granted defendant’s cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

ORDERED that the order, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed, with $25 costs.

In this action by providers to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits, plaintiffs appeal from so much of an order of the Civil Court as granted defendant’s cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that the action is premature because plaintiffs had failed to provide requested verification.

In support of plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and in opposition to defendant’s cross motion, plaintiffs submitted affirmations from plaintiffs’ counsel and annexed purported verification responses which expressly stated that plaintiffs were not providing responses to some of defendant’s verification requests. As a result, contrary to plaintiffs’ contention, the record demonstrates that defendant had not received all of the requested verification and, thus, that the action is premature (see Central Suffolk Hosp. v New York Cent. Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 24 AD3d 492 [2005]).

Accordingly, the order, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed.

PESCE, P.J., ALIOTTA and SOLOMON, JJ., concur.


ENTER:
Paul Kenny
Chief Clerk
Decision Date: December 19, 2017