From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

Gedan v. Home Insurance Company

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Nov 7, 1988
144 A.D.2d 338 (N.Y. App. Div. 1988)

Opinion

November 7, 1988

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Gurahian, J.).


Ordered that the appeal from the order entered May 4, 1987, dismissing the complaint, is dismissed as academic, without costs or disbursements; and it is further,

Ordered that the order entered May 4, 1987, dismissing the amended complaint, is reversed, on the law, with costs, the defendants' motion to dismiss the amended complaint is denied; and the defendants' time to answer the amended complaint is extended to 20 days after service upon them of a copy of this decision and order with notice of entry.

As a result of the defendant insurer's refusal to renew plaintiff's professional liability coverage, the plaintiff commenced an action against the defendants for the alleged wrongful nonrenewal of his insurance policy. While the defendants' cross motion to dismiss this complaint was pending, the plaintiff served the defendants with an amended complaint which contained four causes of action: for a declaratory judgment and an injunction; for wrongful termination-breach of an insurance contract; for breach of a broker-administrator's obligations; and for negligent claim handling, respectively. The defendants moved to dismiss this amended complaint on the ground, inter alia, that it failed to state a cause of action.

The defendants' motion pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7) to dismiss the amended complaint for legal insufficiency was addressed to the complaint as a whole and not to each of the four causes of action. Having found a valid cause of action in the plaintiff's request for declaratory relief, we need not review the sufficiency of the remaining causes of action (De Maria v. Josephs, 41 A.D.2d 655). The defendants' motion to dismiss the amended complaint is defeated upon the finding of one sufficient cause of action (Martirano Constr. Corp. v. Briar Contr. Corp., 104 A.D.2d 1028, 1029-1030).

We have considered the defendants' remaining contentions and find them to be without merit.

Finally, we note that the appeal from the order dismissing the complaint has been dismissed as academic in light of the determination on the appeal from the order regarding the amended complaint. Kunzeman, J.P., Weinstein, Kooper and Balletta, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Gedan v. Home Insurance Company

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Nov 7, 1988
144 A.D.2d 338 (N.Y. App. Div. 1988)
Case details for

Gedan v. Home Insurance Company

Case Details

Full title:BARRY S. GEDAN, Appellant, v. HOME INSURANCE COMPANY et al., Respondents

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Nov 7, 1988

Citations

144 A.D.2d 338 (N.Y. App. Div. 1988)

Citing Cases

In re Opioid Litig.

The court, therefore, is left in the untenable position of having to speculate which arguments relate to the…

Elias v. Handler

The defendants' motion to dismiss, inter alia, for failure to state a cause of action "was addressed to the…