Continental Insurance v. Colangione

94 A.D.2d 916, 463 N.Y.S.2d 619, 1983 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 18366
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 26, 1983
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 94 A.D.2d 916 (Continental Insurance v. Colangione) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Continental Insurance v. Colangione, 94 A.D.2d 916, 463 N.Y.S.2d 619, 1983 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 18366 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

— Appeals (1) from an order of the Supreme Court at Special Term (Pitt, J.), entered November 15, 1982 in Rensselaer County, which denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and partially quashed a subpoena duces tecum, and (2) from an order of said court, entered December 14,1982 in Rensselaer County, which granted defendants’ motion for reargument and vacated certain aspects of the prior order partially quashing the subpoena duces tecum. In March, 1966, three corporations (Skyway companies) owned by the individual defendants Colangione obtained a roofing subcontract for a construction project at Syracuse University from the general contractor, Vincent J. Smith, Inc. (Smith). The subcontract was conditioned upon the Skyway companies’ obtaining payment and performance bonds. Plaintiff Continental Insurance Company’s (Continental’s) predecessor in interest issued the bonds, after, in turn, exacting an indemnity contract from the Skyway companies and the four individual defendants. In 1970, after the project was completed, the Skyway companies obtained a general liability insurance policy from Continental, which included completed operations and contractual liability coverage. In May, 1974, the New York State Dormitory Authority and Syracuse University sued Smith and the architects on the project in Onondaga County Supreme Court for breach of contract, breach of warranty and negligence because of damage to the Syracuse University project buildings from water leakages. Smith brought a third-party action against Skyway for breach of contract, breach of warranty and negligence, and against Continental on the performance bond. Continental then brought fourth-party actions against the corporate and individual defendants on the indemnity contract. (These actions are hereinafter referred to as the Onondaga litigation, or the Onondaga third- and fourth-party actions.) Three years later, in 1977, Continental posted a reserve on the performance bond in the third-party action and requested defendants to put up collateral security, as required by the indemnity contract. When defendants declined to do so, Continental instituted this action against them in Rensselaer County Supreme Court for specific performance of their obligation under the indemnity contract to post collateral security. Defendants pleaded in defense that this obligation was covered by the 1970 general liability policy, and counterclaimed (1) for their $50,000 defense costs in the Onondaga third- and fourth-party actions, and (2) for a declaratory judgment that Continental was obligated under the general liability policy to defend and insure defendants in the Onondaga County action. In 1978, Continental brought a motion for summary judgment for defendants to post the collateral security, which was granted by Justice Harold J. Hughes in a decision which held that the duty to post collateral under the indemnity agreement was separate and independent from any duty to insure under the general liability policy. No appeal was taken from that judgment. On March 14, 1980, defendants brought a summary judgment motion before Justice Lawrence E. Kahn for a determination of their [917]*917counterclaim that under the general liability insurance policy Continental was obligated to defend defendants in the Onondaga County action. Just a few days later, portions of the Onondaga County action were settled for a total amount of $400,000. Continental paid $100,000 on the surety bond in settlement of the third-party actions, and stipulated to a discontinuance of its fourth-party action against the Skyway companies. Continental’s fourth-party action against the individual defendants was not settled, however, and in the subsequent trial of this action, the individual defendants were found to be liable to Continental on the indemnity contract.1 Thereafter, defendants’ summary judgment motion in Rensselaer County (that Continental was obligated to defend them in the Onondaga action under the liability policy) was granted by Justice Kahn, but was reversed on appeal to this court on the ground that a question of fact existed as to whether the individual defendants were “insureds” under the terms of the general liability insurance policy Continental Ins. Co. v Colangione, 86 AD2d 685). Finally, in October, 1982, Continental brought the instant motion in the Rensselaer County action before Justice De Forest C. Pitt for summary judgment dismissing defendants’ counterclaims and for an order quashing a subpoena duces tecum. Special Term denied the motion for summary judgment, on the basis that there were triable questions of fact, and granted the requested motion to quash as to certain items. Defendants then moved to reargue and vacate a portion of the order which partially quashed the subpoena duces tecum. Reargument was granted, and certain portions of the prior order to quash were vacated. Continental appeals from the denial of summary judgment and from the modification of the prior order quashing portions of the subpoena duces tecum. On Continental’s appeal from denial of its motion for summary judgment dismissing defendants’ counterclaims, the issues presented are: (1) whether outstanding questions of fact exist as to Continental’s obligation under the liability policy to defend and insure defendants against the Onondaga third- and fourth-party claims; and (2) irrespective of any such coverage, whether the final results of the Onondaga litigation conclusively foreclose any claim by defendants arising out of Continental’s failure to defend and insure in the Onondaga litigation. Our reading of the liability provisions defining the scope of both the policy’s coverage for completed operations liability and for contractual liability leads us to conclude that, as a matter of law, there was no duty on the part of Continental to defend or insure its own claim against Skyway and the Colangiones for indemnity in the Onondaga fourth-party action. The key language in the policy defining Continental’s duty as insurer under both forms of coverage is that it “will pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured * * * shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because ofbódily injury or property damage * ** caused by an occurrence, and the company shall have the right and duty to defend any suit against the insured seeking damages on account of such bodily injury or property damage” (emphasis added). In its Onondaga fourth-party action, Continental sued to enforce payment of a contract debt (indemnification) arising out of its contractual obligation as surety under the performance bond. Continental’s suit against defendants in the fourth-party action was, thus, not one “seeking damages on account of* * * bodily injury or property damage”; and the judgment rendered against defendants in the fourth-party action was not pursuant to any obligation on their part to pay damages for personal injury or property damage. Therefore, Special Term erred in not granting summary judgment dismissing so much of defendants’ counterclaims as was based upon Continental’s duty to [918]*918defend and insure defendants against their liability in the Onondaga fourth-party action. Despite defendants’ contrary contention, the foregoing determination that summary judgment should be granted against that portion of their counterclaims is not inconsistent with our decision in the earlier appeal that an issue of fact was presented as to whether the Colangiones were “insureds” as defined in the general liability policy (Continental Ins. Co. v Colangione, 86 AD2d 685, supra).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 A.D.2d 916, 463 N.Y.S.2d 619, 1983 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 18366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/continental-insurance-v-colangione-nyappdiv-1983.