Opinion
2001-02075
Argued December 6, 2001.
January 22, 2002.
In an action, inter alia, for a judgment declaring the obligations of the parties pursuant to a certain undertaking agreement, the defendant Orix Credit Alliance, Inc., appeals, as limited by its brief, from so much of an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Rudolph, J.), dated November 29, 2000, as failed to award it interest from May 14, 1998.
Reisman, Peirez Reisman, LLP, Garden City, N.Y. (Jerome Reisman, E. Christopher Murray, Craig M. Johnson, and Joseph Capobianco of counsel), for appellant.
Wolff Samson, P.A., New York, N.Y. (Vincent R. Rippa and Adam Friedman of counsel), for respondent.
Before: GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, J.P., LEO F. McGINITY, HOWARD MILLER, SANDRA L. TOWNES, JJ.
ORDERED that the order and judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
It is well settled that a surety's obligation is strictly construed and cannot be extended beyond the plain language of the contract (see, Becker v. Faber, 280 N.Y. 146, 149; Mid-State Precast Sys. v. Corbetta Constr. Co., 202 A.D.2d 702; Mendel-Mesick-Cohen Architects v. Peerless Ins. Co., 74 A.D.2d 712). Since the undertaking in this case did not obligate the plaintiff surety to pay interest which accrued prior to its default, the Supreme Court properly determined that the appellant was not entitled to such interest from the plaintiff (cf., Mid-State Precast Sys. v. Corbetta Constr. Co., supra; U.S. Capital Ins. Co. v. Buffalo Erie County Regional Dev. Corp., 177 A.D.2d 949).
GOLDSTEIN, J.P., McGINITY, H. MILLER and TOWNES, JJ., concur.