Matter of State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v Scott

Matter of State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v Scott 2008 NY Slip Op 02755 [49 AD3d 465] March 27, 2008 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, May 14, 2008

In the Matter of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Respondent,
v
Sheldon Scott et al., Appellants.

—[*1] Alpert & Kaufman, LLP, New York City (Gary Slobin of counsel), for appellants.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.), entered August 20, 2007, which granted petitioner insurer's application to permanently stay a hit-and-run arbitration demanded by respondents insureds, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

There is no merit to respondents' argument that the timeliness of the proceeding under CPLR 7503 (c) should be measured from service of their attorney's April 16, 2007 letter notifying petitioner of their intention to arbitrate their "uninsured motorist claims." That letter gave no indication whether such claims were being brought under the lack-of-coverage or hit-and-run provision of the uninsured motorist claim section of the subject policy. Rather, timeliness should be measured from service of respondents' May 30, 2007 demand to arbitrate. That was the first notice given by respondents that their claims were being brought under the hit-and-run provision, and thus when petitioner first learned that it had a ground for seeking a stay of arbitration, namely, respondent passenger's statement to petitioner shortly after the accident that there was no physical contact with the offending vehicle (see Matter of Prudential Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. v Hobson, 67 NY2d 19 [1986]; cf. Matter of Allcity Ins. Co. [Jimenez], 78 NY2d 1054, 1056 [1991]). No hearing was required since the lack of physical contact was undisputed. We have considered respondents' other contentions and find them unavailing. Concur—Friedman, J.P., Gonzalez, McGuire and Moskowitz, JJ.