Hartford Fire Ins. v. Siegfried Press, Inc.

Full title: HARTFORD FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. SIEGFRIED PRESS, INC., et…

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

Date published: Jun 10, 1996

228 A.D.2d 476 (N.Y. App. Div. 1996)

643 N.Y.S.2d 679

Opinion

June 10, 1996

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Orange County (Owen, J.).

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, with costs.

The plaintiff failed to meet the heavy burden necessary to show that the "full value endorsement" should be removed from the insurance policy issued by the plaintiff to the defendants because it was added thereto by mutual mistake (see, Chimart Assocs. v. Paul, 66 N.Y.2d 570; Matter of Union Indem. Ins. Co., 162 A.D.2d 398). The plaintiff's contention that there was a mutual mistake because the defendants did not specifically request that such a provision be included in the insurance policy is meritless (see, Porter v. Commercial Cas. Ins. Co., 292 N.Y. 176, 184).

In addition, since the plaintiff drafted the ambiguous "full value endorsement", it was properly construed in the light most favorable to the defendants (see, Ruder Finn v. Seaboard Sur. Co., 52 N.Y.2d 663; Tonkin v. California Ins. Co., 294 N.Y. 326).

The plaintiff's remaining contentions are either unpreserved for appellate review or without merit. O'Brien, J.P., Santucci, Joy and Florio, JJ., concur.