AutoOne Ins. Co. v Eastern Is. Med. Care, P.C., 2016 NY Slip Op 05354 (2d Dept. 2016)
This case is interesting on a few levels since it addresses what could be categorized as unresolved issues involving provisions of the no-fault law that have not had much exercise in recent years. Ironically, since the nature of the practice is more arbitration based, I am now more involved with appeals of trial de novo rulings and Article 75 rulings at the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. The nice part about this trend is that the carrier gets to chose the venue and I am not stuck in Civil Court. This means the papers are read, “the briefing schedule” does not exist and real orders are generated. Civility in practice.
This case it upon the issue of what happens when you file a master arbitration brief and chose not submit one. Why would this happen? Simply put, the award is in excess of $5,000 and there is no way to vacate the award through the arbitration system. The question asked is why bother submitting a brief. After this case, I have taken the position to put in a pro forma brief, whatever that is. The Supreme Court did not rule on this issue but it was a large part of Defendant’s argument for dismissing the declaratory judgment action/trial de novo and seeking confirmation of the master arbitral award.
(1) The Court correctly held that: “the insurance regulations specifically provide that a master arbitration will proceed even if a party fails to appear or submit materials and that the master arbitrator must make a determination on the merits, not in favor of an appearing party solely on the default of the other party (see 11 NYCRR 65-4.10[d][8]). Thus, the plaintiff’s failure to file a brief with the master arbitrator was not determinative of whether it satisfied a condition precedent or exhausted its administrative remedies”
Secondly, how much time does an insurance carrier have to commence a trial de novo following a master arbitration award? Supreme Court said that one only has 35-days to commence a trial de novo, relying on the uniform court rule. The Court in applying 65-4.10(h)(2) said that the 90-day period to vacate an arbitration award would apply to this situation.
(2) “As this arbitration dispute was originally submitted to the American Arbitration Association (hereinafter AAA) and was not court-ordered, the 35-day timetable applied by the court pursuant to 28 NYCRR 28.12 was not applicable (see 22 NYCRR 28.2). Instead, the plaintiff had 90 days from the date the master arbitrator’s award was mailed to it to commence this action (seeInsurance Law § 5106[c]; CPLR 7511; 11 NYCRR 65-4.10[h][2]; see also Matter of Slater v Eagle Ins. Co., 294 AD2d at 369), and the plaintiff did so. Thus, the court erred in granting the defendant’s cross motion to confirm the award of the master arbitrator on the ground that this action was not timely commenced and in denying that branch of the plaintiff’s motion which was pursuant to CPLR 3211(b) to dismiss the third affirmative defense, which alleged that the action was not timely commenced.”
Now the case is remanded for a determination in the merits of Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.
