Opinion
May 31, 1991
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (O'Shaugnessy, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, without costs or disbursements, and the motion to dismiss is granted.
The plaintiff failed to present its purported notice of claim to "the governing body", the Board of Education of the defendant Port Washington Union Free School District, as required by Education Law § 3813 (1). The application and certificate for payment, purporting to be the notice of claim, was directed to a named individual at the office of the defendant who the defendant asserted was its business agent. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the individual to whom the application for payment was directed was given authority by the Board of Education to receive the notice of claim. The requirements of Education Law § 3813 (1) must be formally complied with and, therefore, the plaintiff's failure to timely serve a notice of claim upon the Board of Education or its designee was a fatal defect requiring dismissal of the plaintiff's first cause of action (see, Parochial Bus Sys. v Board of Educ., 60 N.Y.2d 539; F G Heating Co. v Board of Educ., 103 A.D.2d 791; Almar Constr. Corp. v Hughes Sons, 58 A.D.2d 615). Nor does the plaintiff's second cause of action for extra compensation claimed to have been earned upon the construction project fare any better. The purported notice of claim consists of correspondence between the plaintiff and the defendant's architect. We reject the plaintiff's argument that service of the complaint within three months after the accrual of the claim excuses its failure in serving a notice of claim (see, Davidson v Bronx Mun. Hosp., 64 N.Y.2d 59, 61). Thompson, J.P., Brown, Eiber and Harwood, JJ., concur.