Blake v Ford Motor Co.

Blake v Ford Motor Co. 2007 NY Slip Op 04885 [41 AD3d 150] June 7, 2007 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Lloyd Blake et al., Appellants,
v
Ford Motor Company et al., Defendants. Guideone Insurance Company, Nonparty Respondent.

—[*1] Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, New York (Wendy R. Fleishman of counsel), for appellants.

Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, New York (Carl J. Schaerf of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Yvonne Gonzalez, J.), entered May 31, 2006, which, in an action for personal injuries and wrongful death caused by the rolling over of a van in which plaintiffs or their decedents were passengers, denied plaintiffs' motion to amend the complaint so as to add the van's insurer, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The proposed amendment, which seeks to add claims of fraud and fraudulent concealment against the van's insurer based on its failure to warn the van's owner of the van's rollover risk, was properly denied for lack of merit (see Thompson v Cooper, 24 AD3d 203, 205 [2005]). In the absence of a fiduciary relationship between the van's owner and its insurer, the insurer was under no duty to warn the owner of the van's rollover risk (see McGarr v Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 19 AD3d 254, 256 [2005]; Elghanian v Harvey, 249 AD2d 206 [1998]). We have considered plaintiffs' other contentions and find them unavailing. Concur—Andrias, J.P., Gonzalez, Sweeny, McGuire and Malone, JJ.