Charles Deng Acupuncture, P.C. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.

Opinion

Charles Deng Acupuncture, P.C., as Assignee of Etienne, Olive, Appellant,

against

State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., Respondent.

The Rybak Firm, PLLC (Damin J. Toell, Esq.), for appellant. Rivkin Radler, LLP (Stuart M. Bodoff, Esq.), for respondent.

Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Carol Ruth Feinman, J.), entered July 10, 2014. The order granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with $25 costs.

In this action by a provider to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits, plaintiff appeals from an order of the Civil Court which granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that plaintiff had failed to appear for duly scheduled examinations under oath (EUOs).

Contrary to plaintiff's contention, the affirmation submitted by defendant's attorney, who was present in his office to conduct plaintiff's EUO on the scheduled dates, was sufficient to establish that plaintiff had failed to appear for the EUOs (see Stephen Fogel Psychological, P.C. v Progressive Cas. Ins. Co., 35 AD3d 720 [2006]). While plaintiff's owner asserts that, upon receiving the EUO scheduling letters, he called defendant's investigator and left a message asking to reschedule the EUOs, plaintiff nevertheless failed to raise a triable issue of fact, since the person plaintiff's owner allegedly called was not the investigator identified in defendant's EUO scheduling letter as the person to be called in case of any issue, and the phone number allegedly called was not the same as the phone number set forth in defendant's EUO scheduling letter.

Accordingly, the order is affirmed.

PESCE, P.J., ALIOTTA and SOLOMON, JJ., concur.

ENTER:
Paul Kenny
Chief Clerk
Decision Date: December 15, 2017