Opinion
No. 2011–1857 Q C.
2013-05-14
JIAN KANG, INC. as Assignee of Charlene Prescott, Respondent, v. NEW YORK CENTRAL MUTUAL FIRE INS. CO., Appellant.
Present: WESTON, J.P., PESCE and RIOS, JJ.
Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Rudolph E. Greco, Jr., J.), entered April 20, 2011. The order, insofar as appealed from, denied the branches of defendant's motion seeking summary judgment dismissing so much of the complaint as sought to recover upon claims in the total sum of $3,988.58.
ORDERED that the order, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed, with $25 costs.
In this action by a provider to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits, defendant denied plaintiff's claims on the ground of “material misrepresentation” because plaintiff had billed for a heating pad which defendant had determined had not been provided to plaintiff's assignor. Defendant moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, contending that, since one of plaintiff's claim forms billed for an electric heating pad which had not been provided to plaintiff's assignor, plaintiff was barred, as a result of this material misrepresentation, from receiving no-fault benefits for the electric heating pad as well as for the remaining supplies for which plaintiff sought to recover. Plaintiff opposed the motion. The Civil Court, by order entered April 20, 2011, granted defendant's motion to the extent of dismissing so much of the complaint as sought to recover for the heating pad, on the ground that it had not been delivered to plaintiff's assignor, but denied the branches of defendant's motion seeking summary judgment dismissing so much of the complaint as sought to recover for the remaining supplies billed for, which amounted to $3,988.58. Defendant appeals from so much of the order as denied those branches of its motion.
Defendant failed to establish as a matter of law that the claim forms which are the subject of this appeal sought payment of assigned first-party no-fault benefits for medical supplies that had not actually been provided by plaintiff to its assignor. Defendant also failed to establish that the provider's billing for a heating pad which had never been delivered to plaintiff's assignor voided the automobile insurance policy underlying this action from the policy's inception and that, therefore, defendant need not pay for any of the other medical supplies which may have been furnished to plaintiff's assignor under this policy.
Accordingly, the order, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed.