Elson v. Defren

283 A.D.2d 109, 726 N.Y.S.2d 407
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided May 29, 2001·Published·Cited by 27 cases

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Sullivan, P. J.

This lawsuit arises out of an automobile accident that occurred on January 20, 1998 near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, when a [111]*1111998 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Kenneth M. Defren, on a business trip at the time for his employer, Rowland Worldwide, Inc., collided with a vehicle driven by Keith G. Roth, an Idaho resident, not a party to this litigation. Defren and Rowland are defendants in each of these actions. Defren’s passengers were Robert Elson and Howard Goldfracht, plaintiffs in these actions. According to the Idaho police accident report, Defren was driving southbound on US 95 when he lost control of his vehicle on the icy roadway and it spun out of control into the northbound lane and struck the Roth vehicle. Two days before the accident, Defren had rented the Blazer from Avis Rent-A-Car, also a defendant in both actions, at Spokane International Airport. As a result of the accident, the Blazer was damaged beyond repair. Elson and Goldfracht, both residents of New York, as is Defren, were injured in the accident and commenced separate actions, joined for trial, that included spousal derivative claims. It is undisputed that at the time of the accident Defren was acting on behalf of his employer, Rowland.

In May 1999, Defren and Rowland moved and Avis cross-moved to dismiss both actions on the ground of forum non conveniens. The Elsons cross-moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability premised on Defren’s violation of Idaho Code § 49-630, which requires operators to keep their vehicles on the right side of the road and a breach of which is deemed negligence per se. (See, Rosenberg v Toetly, 93 Idaho 135, 456 P2d 779.) The court denied dismissal and granted the Elsons’ cross motion for summary judgment as to liability finding that Defren failed “to provide a non-negligent explanation for the accident.” Defendants appealed from both orders, but Avis subsequently withdrew its appeals. Both orders were affirmed by this Court (Elson v Defren, 279 AD2d 361.)

In December 1999, the Goldfrachts moved for partial summary judgment against Defren, Rowland and Avis on the issue of liability, arguing that the defendants were collaterally estopped from contesting their liability on the basis of the grant of summary judgment against them in favor of the Elsons. The defendants opposed the motion on the basis, inter alia, of the pending appeal of the prior grant of summary judgment. Without further explanation, the court granted summary judgment to the Goldfrachts on liability against defendants Defren, Rowland and Avis, all of whom filed a notice of appeal. As with the case of the appeal from the grant of partial summary judgment to the Elsons, Avis’ appeal was subsequently withdrawn.

[112] Prior to withdrawing these appeals, by order to show cause dated October 17, 2000 Avis had moved for summary judgment dismissing the Elsons’ complaint on the ground that Avis was not vicariously liable based on permissive use for any negligence on Defren’s part, and that the record was devoid of any evidence to support any other grounds for a finding of negligence against it. Avis also sought a correction of the Goldfracht decision to the extent it enlarged the earlier decision in favor of the Elsons to encompass a determination of liability against Avis.

In seeking such relief, Avis initially noted that neither the Elsons nor the Goldfrachts had contended that Avis was vicariously liable or had otherwise raised the issue of Avis’ liability. Avis further asserted that New York’s statutory imposition of vicarious liability based on the presumption of permissive use, Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388 (1), would not apply to this accident because the statutory language explicitly refers to automobiles “used or operated” within the State of New York and there is no evidence that the Avis-owned Blazer was ever used or operated in New York. Idaho’s own vicarious liability statute, Idaho Code § 49-2417, analogous to the vicarious liability provisions of Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388, did not apply, Avis argued, because it is a statute of loss allocation, not conduct regulation, and New York will not apply another state’s loss allocation rules to the issue of a vehicle owner’s liability where, as here, the plaintiffs and “primary” defendants are New York domiciliaries. Moreover, Avis argued, the Idaho vicarious liability statute is limited in application to cases venued in Idaho and which involve vehicles licensed and registered in that state. No authority was cited for any of the foregoing propositions.

In an order entered November 14, 2000, the IAS court, without further elaboration, granted Avis’ motion for summary judgment dismissing both complaints against Avis on the ground that Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388 did not apply and “corrected” its order granting summary judgment to the Goldfrachts to the extent of denying the Goldfrachts’ motion for such relief as against Avis. Apparently, the IAS court concluded that under New York’s choice-of-law principles Idaho law did not apply to the issue of Avis’ vicarious liability arising out of its ownership of the Blazer and that under New York law, which did apply, Avis could not be vicariously liable, as a matter of law, because Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388 (1) does not impose such liability on owners of vehicles that are “used or [113] operated” exclusively outside of New York. Defren and Rowland appeal from this determination. Three weeks later Avis, as noted, withdrew its appeals from the earlier orders, which granted summary judgment in favor of the Elsons and the Goldfrachts. We reverse.

To begin with, Avis’ motion was procedurally flawed. The nature of a motion is determined by its substance, not prayer for relief. Although denominated a motion for summary judgment, Avis’ motion, brought one year after the entry of the order granting summary judgment in favor of the Elsons, eight months after the entry of the order granting such relief in favor of the Goldfrachts and after Avis had perfected its appeals therefrom, was, in reality, a motion to renew the prior grant of summary judgment. Avis argued that the summary judgment award in favor of the Elsons did not extend to Avis and that the order in favor of the Goldfrachts had enlarged the scope of the earlier order by extending the grant of summary judgment to include Avis. This position, of course, was inconsistent with Avis’ appeal from the earlier grant of summary judgment in favor of the Elsons.

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Elson v. Defren, 283 A.D.2d 109, 726 N.Y.S.2d 407 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2001).

283 A.D.2d 109 (Elson v. Defren) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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