SS Med. Care, P.C. v 21st Century Ins. Co., 2019 NY Slip Op 51267(U)(App. Term 2d Dept. 2019)
To me, the Supreme Court judgment needed to permanently stay all arbitrations and litigation. That end result would invariably run around the 5015(a)(1) analysis and the definition of a judgment. Further appeals will test this paradigm. The lesson here, I think, is for the attorneys to settle or re-settle better Supreme Court judgments.
(1) ” By order entered May 6, 2015, the Supreme Court granted a motion by 21st Century for summary judgment in the declaratory judgment action, finding that the insurer had established, prima facie, that it possessed a founded belief that the collision at issue was intentional and, thus, not covered by the insurance policy in question, and that the provider and its assignor had failed to raise a triable issue of fact. On February 4, 2016, a declaratory judgment was entered in the Supreme Court pursuant to the May 6, 2015 order.”
(2) “We note that, by its order entered on August 16, 2011, the Civil Court rendered its determination to grant SS Medical’s motion for summary judgment, thus, completing the court’s judicial function (see Vogel v Edwards, 283 NY 118 [1940]). Thereafter, and prior to the issuance of the Supreme Court’s temporary stay of pending and future lawsuits against 21st Century, plaintiff applied in the Civil Court for the entry of a judgment pursuant to the August 16, 2011 order. As the order had resolved the motion, the entry of the judgment in the Civil Court on February 2, 2012, pursuant the August 16, 2011 order, was simply a ministerial act of the clerk (see e.g. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co. v Whitestone Gen. Hosp., 142 Misc 2d 67 [Sup Ct, NY County 1988]).”
